A quick response for Halifax

Figure 1: Map showing Halifax in Nova Scotia. Reproduced from World Maps. https://www.google.com.au/search?q=map+of+halifax+nova+scotia&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBAU810AU810&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=LolveyJ3xLSmMM%253A%252CcwMRmSFKXf8fLM%252C_&usg=AI4_-kR08XJES67V1MOJgMMNqUTmZTPvsA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiQ6-br-6jeAhVbfCsKHc2pALAQ9QEwBnoECAUQCg#imgrc=LolveyJ3xLSmMM:

Halifax, in Nova Scotia (Canada), was an important port for Atlantic shipping during World War One. In December 1917, tragedy struck when the French steamer Mont Blanc, laden with explosives, collided with the Norwegian Imo. Wikipedia suggests that approximately 2000 people were killed. The ensuing devastation - including fire and tsunamis - resulted in an urgent call for international aid. Christian Science Wartime Activities (1914-1918)* reports that The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, was one of several first responders. A team of five was appointed to immediately "proceed to Halifax with relief" (p. 61).

A newspaper in Minnesota later reported that -

"Catastrophe...makes strange bedfellows... As soon as the wreck of Halifax was flashed to Boston, The Mother Church of Christian Science raised $10,000 in cash, secured a special train, loaded it with supplies and with the cash and supplies was ready to speed relief to the stricken city.

"The officials of Boston, trying to get a special train, found the Scientists were a lap ahead of them, and special trains are not easy to get these days. The Red Cross made a like discovery. Both city and Red Cross hurried to The Mother Church officials.

"On Schedule time that train pulled away from Boston loaded with the workers, supplies and money of the Church of Christ, Scientist, with doctors and medicines from the city of Boston and with nurses and supplies from the Red Cross.

"Where has there been a more splendid sinking of human belief and opinion, of religious and personal prejudice, the forgetting of all revilings and enmities, in the bigger, nobler, holier faith in a common humanity? It recalls the tenth and eleventh Beatitudes."

An article titled "Remembering Halifax at Christmas", recalls the experience of a granddaughter of a Halifax man who was killed in the 1917 explosion. The article can be found in the December 1998 issue of The Christian Science Journal.

J. Swannell

*Copyright 1922 The Christian Science Publishing Society