the invaders could devise and as thoroughly as time and circumstances permitted.

Mr. William Philip Simms, correspondent with the British army at Peronne, wrote under date of March 20, 1917:

"Historic Peronne is now a heap of rubbish. A deliberate, systematic, unreasoning policy of destructiveness was thoroughly carried out before the Germans abandoned it. The sixteenth century church, once the pride of the town, is in ruins. National monuments were destroyed wantonly. Moreover such destruction was not the work of British and French shells, for their target was only the German barracks. It was purely the work of the Germans, mostly by dynamite."

One of the most conspicuous instances of this destruction was that of Coucy Castle. Mr. Henry Wood, the American correspondent with the French army at Coucy, writing under date of March 30, 1917, said:

"Coucy Castle, one of the most splendid remaining relics of the thirteenth century, was utterly blasted from the face of the earth. Nothing is left but a great pile of massive crumpled masonry and pulverized rock of what was one of the oldest, the strongest, the biggest and the most historic castles of all Europe. Pieces of its ancient masonry were spread over 10,000 square yards. Not a vestige remains of the great tower which Cardinal Mazarin's engineers vainly tried to blow up in the seventeenth century. Coucy Castle had been set aside as a historical museum."

Besides the deliberate and unnecessary destruction above described, there has also been a great deal of demolition by the artillery fire of both sides which was doubtless unavoidable on account of the very nature of the operations. Rheims Cathedral has suffered further injuries and is now said to be liable to collapse; and almost every town within the limits of active warfare has suffered damage to its historic landmarks and art How extenive this destruction has been we shall not know fully until after the war; but enough is already known to demonstrate its deplorable extent.

The destruction of the churches before referred to raises an

interesting question in anticipation of the settlement which must ultimately be negotiated between France and her enemies. The separation of Church and State was effected in France long before

the war broke out, and since the separation was promulgated the Government has taken no part in the maintenance of the churches. Under the National Monuments act described in our previous Reports, the Government has classified about 2000 old churches with historic or artistic value and placed them under Government restrictions as to voluntary alteration, mutilation or destruction, but further than that has assumed no proprietorship in them. The question which arises, therefore, is whether the losses caused by the war are to be made the bases of claims by the churches or by the Government in the arrangement of indemnities. We judge, however, that this is a mere technicality, and that indemnity will be demanded and, if obtained, will be applied equitably to the rebuilding or restoration of the ruined edifices.

In anticipation of the end of the war, groups of architects and builders have already been formed and even syndicates organized to prepare a program for the restoration of churches and other buildings in the war zone. Most of the plans proposed, it is said, are inspired by the purest modernism in which the practical and the technical predominate over the artistic and the sentimental. This tendency is what the churchgoer and the art lover are trying to overcome. The latter propose that where the question of economy enters into consideration, cheap provisional chapels be constructed to serve until the time when the churches may be restored in the full sense of the term.

Lafayette's Birthplace Preserved

In our last Annual Report, at page 428, we mention the project of a group of Americans of Paris and New York to purchase the old Chateau de Chavaniac Lafayette, situated in the Haute-Loire near St. Georges d'Aurae, in which the Marquis de Lafayette was born, and to preserve it as a museum. On January 1, 1917, public announcement was made that the plan had succeeded. The admirable project for the preservation of the chateau is being carried out by the Executive Committee of the French Heroes Fund, whose headquarters are at No. 200 Fifth avenue, New York. Mrs. William Astor Chanler is the President, and Mrs. John Moffat the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the French Heroes Fund Committee. Messrs. Coudert Brothers of New

York represented the American committee in the negotiations with the Lafayette family which were brought to a successful conclusion in the last week of 1916. (See plate 76.)

The public announcement of the project states that:

"The Chateau de Chavaniac Lafayette was secured through the personal efforts of Mrs. Chanler and Mr. Moffatt. The purchase of the chateau was made through its owner, the Marquis Gaston de Lafayette, who inherited it in 1890 from Senator Edmund de Lafayette. The present Marquis Gaston de Lafayette is a grandson of the General's only son George Washington de Lafayette. He was the representative of Lafayette and a guest of Congress in this country at the Yorktown celebration.

"The Marquis Gilbert Motier de Lafayette was born at the Chateau de Chavaniac in the French province of Auvergne on September 6, 1757. The Chateau de Chavaniac Lafayette is in the French province of Auvergne, some 400 miles from Paris in southern France. It is the crowning architectural feature of this little settlement of some 500 souls and stands sentinel-like among the sixty red-tiled roofs of the village. The little church at which Lafayette worshipped is only a step from the chateau gates.

"The original Chateau de Chavaniac dates from the fourteenth century. It was destroyed by fire in 1791, but very soon after was rebuilt from the original plans.

"It is the purpose of the French Heroes' Fund to make this chateau in France a complement to Mount Vernon. In it are to be kept records of Colonial days, as well as those of the present war. There is to be a room dedicated to the British; one to the Legion; another to the American Ambulance, and still another to aviation. It also is to be made a home for orphans and for soldiers who have been disabled."

National Parks, and Fish and Game Reserves

On January 26, 1917, cable despatches appeared in the New York papers announcing that the French and Spanish Governments were to be asked to cooperate in the establishment in the Pyrenees of an international park similar to the Yellowstone Park in the United States. The project was stated to be in the hands of the committee under the presidency of Prince Albert of Monaco, which includes Prince Roland Bonaparte, Marquis de Villaviciosa, a Spanish Senator, and other prominent French

men and Spaniards. The purpose of the committee was to have the park also a vast hunting ground where it would be possible to acclimate practically all wild game of Europe. Senator Villaviciosa introduced in the Cortes the legislation necessary for Spanish participation, and committees were appointed to draw up the measures to be submitted to the French Parliament.

With a view to verifying this report and obtaining further particulars, we wrote a letter of inquiry to Prince Roland. Bonaparte who had the kindness to refer it, for answer, to Count Clary, who is President of the Saint Hubert Club de France, President of the Association des Territoires Réservés de Chasse et de Pêche, and Vice President of the Association des Pares Nationaux. Count Clary favors us with a reply under date of Paris, March 19, 1917. He says that the meeting which was held on January 25, 1917, at the Prince of Monaco's was followed by an appointed assembly which had the duty of modifying the first projects and which has adopted the rules of a new association for creating great reserve territories for hunting and fishing. (Association des Territoires Réservés de Chasse et de Pêche.) This association, he says, is entirely disposed to cooperate with the existing Association des Pares Nationaux (National Parks Association) for the establishment of great parks; but in the countries of old Europe the realization of great national reserves of the type of the American parks, which he calls "admirable," is a difficult, not to say impossible thing. Ownership, in France especially, is infinitely more subdivided, and the State proprietors do not appear very much disposed to relinquish to the Nation any of their vast forest domains. Furthermore, to create a national park, a law is necessary, and the French parliament is not yet prepared to enter upon this path. Count Clary hopes that the creation of great Reserve Territories for Hunting and Fishing in the Pyrenees, with reserve-sanctuary, will teach by example and will serve in a most useful and efficacious way the noble cause of National Parks.

The object of the Association des Territoires Réservés de Chasse et de Pêche appears from its by-laws to be to study, promote and realize, in France and in the French colonies and protectorates, the creation of great game and fish reserves,

restocked and protected. The Counsel of Administration is composed of the following persons:

Honorary Presidents: S. A. S., the Prince of Monaco; M. Jean Dupuy, Senator, former Minister; and the Marquis de Villaviciosa de Asturias, Senator of Spain.

President: The Count Clary.

Vice Presidents: M. Gaston Menier, Senator; M. Edmond Perrier, Member of the Institute; and Baron Duregne.

Secretary General: M. Glandaz.

Assistant Secretary General: M. Chaplain.

Treasurer: M. Louis Mayer.

Members: The Duchess d' Uzès, Prince d'Arenberg, Count d'Alincourt, and Messrs. Antoni, Borrel, Cenac, Conturieu, Ducrocq, Guist' hau, Meillon, Mougeot, Nogues and Raynaud.

The address of the Saint Hubert Club of France, from which Count Clary writes, is No. 21 rue de Clichy, Paris.

Both Prince Roland Bonaparte and Prince Albert of Monaco are widely known for their scientific researches.

IN SPAIN

Appeal to Save La Rabida Monastery

In the early part of 1917, Mrs. Bernhard Whishaw, whose address in La Puerta del Buey, Niebla, Province of Huelva, Spain, and who is an authority on Spanish archaeology and Spanish history generally, wrote a letter to her friend Miss Katharine Lee Bates, Litt. D., Professor of English Literature at Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass., appealing to Americans for help in preventing the famous monastery of La Rabida from falling into ruin. By the courtesy of Miss Bates we produce this interesting letter herewith:

"I now write to ask your help in calling the attention of Americans to the sad state of things at La Rabida, for I cannot but think that once they know the facts they will not allow this historic monastery to fall to ruin for want of money to restore it, after spending large sums of money to build a mere copy of it for the Chicago Exhibition.

"The following report of a debate in the Spanish Senate has just appeared in La Provincia de Huelva. I translate it verbatim, for it describes better than any words of mine could do the actual condition of affairs.