Excerpt from American Military Hospital Our gratitude is real and profound, not only for the encouragement which you have always given us so lavishly, but particularly for your confidence and for the inestimable privilege accorded us of tending the noble and valiant soldiers of France. "We hope that we have been equal to the task, and certainly the science of our surgeons, our sympathy, our love, I might say, for your heroic wounded, ensured our best efforts. There is not a single one among us who has not treasured in his heart the great privilege which has been ours, and I thank you. Monsieur le Ministre, you and France. "The task of the American Ambulance is ended. The United States has just placed itself on the side of France and her valiant allies, the vanguard of our armies is already in France, and already the dawn of victory is in sight. But when the victorious flags of the allied armies pass beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, perhaps the world will recall that the American Ambulance flew during long and dark months the flags of France and the United States, thus proclaiming to the world the union of the two great and free peoples. "I declare the work of the American Ambulance ended. " Vive la France! Vivent les Etats Unis!" After Mr. Benet had finished Mr. Godart spoke and the substance of his remarks was as follows: He spoke of the American Ambulance as being the first relief brought to suffering France and said that the date of August 14, 1914, when the Lycee Pasteur was placed at the disposal of the group of Americans who wished to erect this monument of love for France to serve as a hospital, would always remain sacred to France. He asked that the American flag which was placed over the door of the Lycee Pasteur on that date should be given to the Ministry of War as a souvenir of the American Ambulance. He said, further, that though the American Ambulance would no longer exist, the work which it had accomplished in the past three years would never be forgotten, and in generations to come, when the veterans of the war would tell their grandchildren of their sufferings and their days passed in the hospital, it would always be the American Ambulance that would be the hospital of the great war and the bright spot in the stories of their sufferings. Mr. Godart then spoke of the great growth of the hospital and the many times he had been called upon to represent the French Government and to speak at the inauguration of its various new branches - the sanitary trains, the installation of the Gare de la Chapelle, the Paris Section of the ambulances for transporting the wounded in Paris, the convalescent homes, the Field hospital and services. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."