122 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY 



during the summer and fall of that year with 

 excellent results. 



One really very helpful feature of the 

 Treaty of Versailles and subsequent negotia- 

 tions, was the provision that as a part of the 

 indemnity German agricultural machinery 

 should be furnished to these people. This be- 

 gan to arrive in quantity in the fall of 1920. 

 Little of it was self-propelling, however, and 

 even if it had been the current price of gaso- 

 line (about 90c per gallon in American money) 

 was almost prohibitive. The early spring of 

 1921 saw this equipment all busily engaged, 

 horse-drawn if the owner was lucky, — other- 

 wise cows, goats, dogs and many, many times 

 men and women were the motive power. And 

 the result of it all is that in October 1921 four- 

 fifths of that great devastated region, the No- 

 Man's Land of the war, was producing a crop 

 of some kind or other. 



Along with the above went the rebuilding 

 and refitting of factories and shops, and as, of 

 course, most of them were near towns and 

 railroads, good progress is shown. While 

 some of the methods employed in rebuilding 

 and restoring damaged homes and other build- 

 ings, have been mentioned, the actual con- 

 struction of new homes came in various ways, 

 — first the distinctly temporary structures, 

 largely what we would call portable houses of 

 several types built under what is known as 

 the "Roi Albert Fondation" — the King its 

 sponsor and a liberal contributor to its funds. 

 Thousands of these houses were built in 1919 

 and 1920, for the most part in or near de- 

 stroyed towns and villages, and by far the 

 larger part of them are still occupied. Then 

 came the better housing work of the Office des 

 Regions Devastees, (O. R. D. as it is called) 

 under the Ministry of Economic Affairs. A 

 type of "semi-permanent" structure has been 

 developed by this Oflnce: practically a half- 

 timbered house. So skillfully prepared were 

 the plans that all the material (framing, doors, 

 windows, brick, cement, etc.) in exactly right 

 quantity is delivered promptly to those making 

 proper requisition and by following directions 

 accompanying the plans two men can in a few 

 days build a very presentable and very com- 

 fortable home, and hundreds of these have 

 been built in this way. Now, however, to meet 

 urgent demands, the Government through the 

 O. R. D. is building groups of these near the 

 larger destroyed towns — over 300 at Ypres for 

 example and many at Menin, Commines, Pop- 

 peringe and Dixmude. 

 The O. R. D. in co-operation with the Min- 



istry of Agriculture instituted a competition 

 among Belgian architects for plans for various 

 types of Model Farmstead Groups, — house, 

 ham, granary and other out-buildings, and 

 some particularly delightful and attractive 

 plans were submitted. The best of these are 

 now being executed for the more prosperous 

 farm owners, with the result that there are 

 springing up all over the agricultural area 

 many such homestead groups, varied to suit 

 not only the needs of each type of farmer, but 

 to be in harmony with local pre-war architec- 

 ture, and of course doing away with pre-war 

 defects, unsanitary conditions and so on. 



The result of all this housing activity is that 

 if the present programs of these various or- 

 ganizations continue, by the fall of 1923 every 

 family who lost a home in the war will be re- 

 housed either in the more permanent or semi- 

 permanent type of home. 



Literally hundreds of churches large and' 

 small were either completely or partially de- 

 stroyed. In every town of the devastated 

 region, no matter what else was spared, it was 

 never a church. Their towers and belfries 

 were indeed a "shining mark.'" The figures 

 for West Flanders alone were 250 churches, 

 300 schools, and 16 convents either totally or 

 partially destroyed. Now. however, much 

 church reconstruction is going on. It is a 

 question whether all of it is good judgment, to 

 say nothing of good taste, and whether if, 

 (as is quite general) temporary schools are 

 sufficiently good, why temporary chapels 

 might not suffice for a time until better homes 

 were built; whether, in fact, it is wise for a 

 nation as heavily burdened with debts and 

 disbursements as little Belgium, to add to 

 these expensive church construction. 



As to Town Planning — the subject in which 

 most of us are so vitally interested, which, no 

 doubt, should precede housing, — very little of 

 this has been done, and in view of the pro- 

 gressive "arret loi" of August, 1915, passed 

 during the war, this is particularly disappoint- 

 ing. Almost no comprehensive studies or sur- 

 veys have been made for the destroyed towns. 

 And the little that has been done in the way 

 of planning has been undertaken by local en- 

 gineers and consists mainly in laying down 

 lines in red ink on older maps indicating more 

 or less vaguely the modifications proposed in 

 the alignment of streets, "as if the problem of 

 reconstruction was nothing else than the prob- 

 lem of highways." Furthermore, the Central 

 Commission, to whom under the above-men- 

 tioned law all plans were to be submitted, is 



