1) Free transport by governments of material sent by the Joint Council to devastated countries; 2) Exemption of customs duties for this material; 3). The right of purchasing on the spot foodstuffs and indispensable relief material at the lowest prices (which could generally be established by governments); 4) Transportation for personnel working for the Joint Council; 5) Accommodation of children and sick people in available public buildings to be placed at the disposal of the Joint Council by governments. In submitting these propositions to the members of the League of Nations, the Council is convinced that the Joint Council fully deserves the assistance asked for. APPOINTMENTS. Mr. Howard H. Barton, of Boston, Mass., has been appointed field agent of the Bureau of Junior Red Cross Membership, League of Red Cross Societies, under date of June 1. Mr. Barton, who is a graduate of Harvard University, was appointed Director of the American Junior Red Cross in Europe last year. He has supervised work in many European fields, particularly in France, Belgium and Italy, and has helped to develop the international bureau of school correspondence of the American Red Cross in Paris. Sir Claude Hill having assumed the duties of Acting Director General of the League of Red Cross Societies, Dr. René Sand, of Brussels, has accepted the appointment of Secretary General of the League, and has taken up his post on August 29. Dr. Sand, who studied medicine at the University of Brussels, where he now holds a chair, has made a special study of the question of social medicine. He has undertaken several important missions for the Belgian Government, including, in 1918, an investigation of industrial organisation, social medicine and civic education in the United States and England. In the following year he was invited by the Federal Children's Bureau to return to America in order to study social problems. Dr. Sand is a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium, and secretary-general of the Fondation Úniversitaire of Ghent. Ruins of a church at Ikschnile. MISSIONS. Lady Muriel Paget's Mission in Latvia. In a report of the work of Lady Muriel Paget's Mission to Eastern Europe the great distress which reigns in Latvia is described. The following is a summary of the account: There has been no appreciable improvement in the general social and economic situation of Latvia during the last six months, although conditions are more favourable for constructive work. The greatest improvement is to be found on the land, where the peasant small-holder is settling to work. In the towns, however, life is still at a stand three years of the war it was occupied by the regular Russian army; from 1917 to 1918 it harboured the German army of occupation and the Red army alternately; from 1918 to the beginning of 1920 the Red army was uninterruptedly in possession of the city, and was succeeded for a brief period by the Polish army. It was only in April 1920 that Dvinsk was definitely annexed to Latvia. Things have come to such a pass in the city, that only those who are obliged remain. Machinery is non-existent, and commercial life is a mere shadow of what it was. Grass grows in the streets and nearly all the houses are in ruins. Wood is practically unobtainable, even for the soup kitchens and hospitals, owing to the fact that the workmen engaged to transport it have received no wages. It is estimated that every child in the town between one and a half and ten years is underfed. The mission in May 1920, opened its first soup kitchen, which has without interruption provided a thousand meals daily to |