THE SURGICAL UNIT'S SERVICE

The most important service of the Harvard Surgical units that have gone to France to serve in the war zone is not humanitarian but lies in their capacity to demonstrate that the American people as individuals are firm in their belief in "the inalienable right to freedom of thought and freedom of action." This statement by Dr. Hugh Cabot, the leader of the present unit, is not aimed at disparaging the great medical and surgical value of the units to France. He rather emphasizes the point that through the work and sacrifices of these units the Allies have been brought to realize that the American people, even though officially neutral and hence unable to express their approval and support of the righteousness of the Allies cause, are nevertheless back of them in the present war. "There has been but little opportunity for us to demonstrate, in ways which could not be misunderstood, the fact that though the United States is officially neutral, the American people are not."

In enumerating those who have given freely of their time and strength to the cause of the Allies in other than belligerent capacities, Dr. Cabot says: "Here we must reckon the American boys who have taken service with the American Ambulance in France, a service at once arduous, requiring skill, strength and devotion, and not free from danger. While they have taken service with the French and served loyally, they have not the less taken service in defence of the great American ideal of democracy." It is in this class that the Harvard Surgical units really belong. We may well agree with Dr. Cabot when he says that "it is peculiarly appropriate that Harvard, founded under the ideals of Anglo-Saxon civilization, founded to uphold the cause of liberty and freedom, should have been, more than any other American university, concerned in this work."