The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 3/Alice Masaryk Fund

ALICE MASARYK FUND.

Miss Emma Novákova who came to the United States in June to arouse interest on behalf of the Czechoslovak Red Cross sailed back at the end of August, after a trip that took her as far as Nebraska and Kansas and involved making more than a hundred addresses. Lieut. Sedley C. Peck who served in Prague as Hoover’s assistant and there learned to like the Czechoslovak people accompanied Miss Novákova and in English addresses told of what he saw in Prague and how greatly the children were in need of more food and proper medicines.

This brief campaign, coming in the midst of the hot weather, could not reach the great masses of the American people, and its effect was limited to Americans of Czechoslovak descent. With the assistance of the Bohemian National Alliance and especially the Slovak League collections were taken for the Alice Masaryk Fund, and Miss Novákova was able to take with her about one hundred thousand dollars as a fund for purchase of milk and cod liver oil for sick children. The campaign is still going on and will bring greater results.

At the same time charitable hearts in America kept sending help to the needy in the old country in another way. The American Czechoslovak Board opened an office in Chicago for the purpose of assisting people here to send packages of clothing to relatives in Bohemia and Slovakia. Through the co-operation of the Czechoslovak Commercial Commission low rates were secured, and in July and August the Chicago office under the direction of Fráňa Klepal forwarded $600,000 worth of goods to the Czechoslovak Republic most of it clothing, as that is the principal need over there; some of the boxes are intended for the general distribution by the Red Cross. As parcel post to Czechoslovakia will soon be in operation and as there are now many commercial houses offering transportation at a moderate rate, the Board intends to close soon this branch of its activities.