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TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY 



REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE 



TO CO-OPERATE WITH THE COMITE NEERLANDO-BELGE D'ART CIVIQUE* 



This Committee was formed during the war 

 with the hope that in various ways American 

 Landscape Architects and City Planners would 

 be able to help the Comite Neerlando-Belge 

 d'Art Civique in its efforts towards higher 

 standards in City Planning and Civic Art. 

 Prior to the present Chairman's visit in 1920, 

 our efforts had consisted mainly in the for- 

 warding by Professor Pray, of the Harvard 

 University School of Landscape Architecture 

 and City Planning, of a large amount of val- 

 uable data, plans, pamphlets and so on, some 

 of which were unfortunately lost in transit. 

 All the material that was received, however, 

 was sincerely appreciated and put to good use. 

 The Comite Neerlando-Belge d'Art Civique, 

 its moving spirit the well known Belgian Town 

 Planner, Mr. Louis Vander Swaelmen, is now 

 practically disbanded, its efforts being di- 

 rected into various channels, several of which 

 are outlined in the report. 



The more recent activities of our Commit- 

 tee center about visits which the present 

 Chairman was privileged to make during the 

 summers of 1920 and 1921, not only in Bel- 

 gium, but Holland, England, France and Ger- 

 many. The first of these was undertaken as 

 a result of correspondence between our for- 

 mer Chairman, Professor Pray, and Dr. Rene 

 Sand of Brussels, a member of the Belgian 

 Industrial Commission that visited this coun- 

 try in 1917. There followed a very cordial 

 but of course unofficial invitation on the part 

 of Dr. Sand to your Chairman, to come over 

 and help. 



General conditions in Belgium in 1920 were 

 depressing, for while many most important 

 and far reaching plans for reconstruction had 

 been prepared and much work had been start- 

 ed, there was little to show for it all, and to 

 make matters worse, the finances of the na- 

 tion were in a most unfortunate state, for it 

 must be remembered that during the "occupa- 

 tion," German officials went to every bank in 

 Belgium, particularly of course to the Bank 

 of Belgium in Brussels and demanded their 



gold. On its face this was made a business 

 transaction and as security for the loan there 

 were deposited German paper marks, over 

 two billion of them, but every pennyweight of 

 gold was taken and the country left absolute- 

 ly without a gold reserve, which means of 

 course without credit. No other country, as 

 far as the writer knows, suffered this sort of 

 loss. Those who are best informed were hope- 

 ful that some means would be found of 

 settling this particular claim against Germany 

 first and before the matter of reparations. It 

 is in fact very distinctively a separate transac- 

 tion — was made so by the Germans themselves 

 — a business loan for which the Government 

 was offered and forced to take almost worth- 

 less paper. 



First came the question of lodging or living 

 quarters for those many thousands whose 

 homes were completely or quite completely 

 destroyed. Something, — the best thing pos- 

 sible under the circumstances, had to be done 

 at once. This included, first of all, a very 

 thoroughly worked out scheme of quartering 

 or lodging just as many as possible of the re- 

 turning citizens and their families, in the 

 homes of those in the vicinity whose houses 

 were not destroyed. 



Much helpful service was rendered by the 

 so-called "Federation of Co-operatives." These 

 privately organized and financed co-operative 

 building societies e.xist now in all countries, 

 are very active in England and France and 

 here in Belgium there are more than 300 of 

 them and 27 of these have rebuilt or restored 

 since the war 3,124 buildings. This Federa- 

 tion of Co-operatives functions under the con- 

 trol of the Minister of the Interior who 

 thoroughly understands that official interven- 

 tion will be entirely incapable of executing the 

 immense task which is before the country, if 

 it is not supplemented by private initiative. 

 As a result of these efforts, during the month 

 of August 1920, 2,364 loans had been made and 

 in September 3,000, — the number constantly 

 increasing. The "Federation" has organized 



^Prepared by Stephen Child, Chairman. 



