THE JANUS
Our volunteer, Bill Foley, has suggested bringing AFS to the public notice with an exhibition from the hundreds of photographs in our possession. He feels It would serve to interest the general public in us, and stir the conscience of public officials, foundations, and heads of co ercial organizations throughout the city. The origins of AFS are an exciting saga of devotion and service to others under appalliag conditions and danger and it is regrettable that this is known to so few. Members of our own organization, even, have co.e into Archives and expressed astonishment when confronted with the tangible evidence of those early days. We want everyone to know that it was these early piG eer who are the Founding Fathers of AFS. In 1917 when the United States joined the Allies and entered the conflIct known now World War I, AFS volunteers had been helping the French aries on the battlefields for nearly three years, not by bearing r.s but through the quiet and efficient evacuation of the wounded. and in driving munitions and other war material to the front 1ines. Twenty odd years later some of these same volunteers were again in the fray shortly after the outbreak of World r II •• more than two years before the U.S. entered the War in December 1941 -- dedicated to the selfless task of caring for the wounded. They were joined by hundreds of other volunteers who performed their humanitarian and hazardous duties in Fra ce, the Western Desert, Syria, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Au tri ~ Germany and India/Burma. In the years between the Wars, the AFS drivers inaugurate and maintained the exchange of university graduate students between the U.S. and France, and this exchange was reactivate at the end of hostllities in 1946. Thus emerged the Exchange Programs as we know them today. From the AFS volunteers wbo served in that first great adventure, therefore, to the many who participate in the adventures of today an unbroken li of over 70 years of AFS service to the world co. unity reflect the tradition of the AFS volunteer. Bill Foley has offered to select, caption, and arT nge th photographs in the appropriate categories. Early pictures f the scholarship programs will, of course, be included, howin