 No school today, it says. No, no school today, or tomorrow, or next week, or next month, or for a long time to come. No school in France, or Holland, Belgium, or Italy, Germany, or Burma, China, or the Philippines, and no food, or water, or medicine or clothing. No place to get warm, and no place to sleep. For these are refugees everywhere a byproduct of war and a problem for allied armies. As uncontrolled civilians, they inevitably interfere with our military operations. Therefore, it is an imperative necessity that they be controlled. And it's the job of the military police to see that this control is maintained. In some countries, in some cases, the refugees will have to be confined to the area of their homes. Others may have to be evacuated to the rear. In any case, their control will be under the supervision of the theater commander. Full use of local agencies is made whenever possible, in cooperation with the military police. As unidentified individuals, some of these refugees may be criminals, hostile sympathizers, or enemy agents. By spreading rumors, misleading information, or false orders, they can create panic and cause whole peoples to flee blindly into the streets and the open roads, even before their homes have been touched, thus making themselves a perfect target for the enemy. It happened here over France. So it happened over China. And as they spread rumors of bombs, people took to their streets and open roads. They, too, became homeless wanderers and created a hazard to military operations by blocking the movement of troops and supplies. It's the same in every case, in every country. No matter where they're going or where they are, refugees are actually an uncontrolled crowd. They are ever a potential mob, a possible threat to law and order, a majority of our troops and equipment in the area. Refugees without discipline endanger their own health and also the health of our troops. Made desperate by hunger, they follow the garbage trucks and try to salvage any scraps of food that might cling to a discarded can. Their bombed-out towns mean disrupted water supplies, broken sewer disposal systems, inadequate shelter. Refugees in turn mean more exposure and more sickness. So for both military and humanitarian reasons, we must act quickly and decisively. The commanding general orders a compulsory movement, which changes the status of the refugees into that of evacuees. His staff, which may include a civil affairs officer called G-5, prepares the plans for civilian evacuation. The local commander, guided by the tactical situation, carries the plans into effect. Orders go down the line specifying exactly to what place the civilians will be evacuated and what arrangements have been made for receiving them. The MPs assigned to each succeeding lower echelon handle the physical side of the movement. There is a necessary difference in the discipline required for handling the evacuees of enemy countries as compared to those of liberated nations. And action is taken accordingly. Extreme alertness is required in both cases. In conquered territories, the strictest vigilance and aloof discipline is absolutely essential. Sometimes the evacuee will resist the order to leave his home. But evacuation is a compulsory movement, and he has no choice. Most often, however, he is ready to come out of his hiding place. His abandoned mine shaft, air raid shelter, or subterranean dugout, where he has lived for days seeking refuge from the air and artillery attack of both belligerents and the demolition activity of the retreating enemy. Gathering evacuees at designated collection points is the first step in the evacuation procedure. These collection points may be any suitable buildings or street corners. The second step is to direct the evacuees to the evacuation center, a large convenient gathering place which may be any suitable location in town, an abandoned factory, group of houses, or school, just as long as it's away from the main lines of communication. Or the area selected may be outside the town limits. Wherever it is, the military police stay right with the evacuees throughout each move. They remain alert, even while life is being made more bearable for these evacuees. Here at the evacuation center, not only will temporary shelter be provided, but also sanitary facilities, emergency medical aid, and the immediate necessities of clothing, food, and water. These material requirements will be furnished whenever possible from civilian sources and captured enemy supplies. In every case, local religious orders, welfare societies, boy scouts, and local civil authorities join the Red Cross and the military services in attending the Second Hungry. This evacuation center is the place for immediate aid and temporary shelter, and it will remain as such only until the third step can be arranged, transporting the groups back further to an evacuation area, a more perfect. While the MPs control the physical circulation, the military government officer enlists the help of the local authority in the actual operation of the evacuation center. They contribute advice on the number of people to be evacuated. They help make records on each evacuee, and they interpret orders when any difficulty exists between the civilian population and military authorities. As soon as the evacuees have been organized to some degree, they are called in to complete their identification papers. Registration and identification of each person to be evacuated is vitally necessary for the successful control of circulation. Available civilian agencies and military personnel, all working under the supervision of G-5, carefully interrogate and process each individual. At this stage, a most careful check is made for thieves, spies, saboteurs, and collaborationists. At the same time, the military police search the town for any suspicious characters who are rounded up, questioned, and held with any available witnesses for interrogation by the Counterintelligence Corps or the military government, as there are usually a great many collaborationists to be dealt with, a large building may be set aside for their detention. A proclamation by the commanding general explains the rules and regulations of the new government and how they will be enforced. Most important, it gives the authority and details of the evacuation procedure, such as names of families to be moved, the date of movement, the location of the departure point, the time to report, and the amount of baggage to be taken. The evacuees go directly from the evacuation centers to the departure point, directed again by the military police. Failable civilian means of transportation are used, but often fast-moving army vehicles must be relied upon to do the job. An interpreter will be appointed to act as leader in each vehicle for the duration of the trip. He is advised of the plans for the entire movement, the details of protection, feeding, medical attention and inspection, sanitary arrangements, route to be followed, and the final destination. These plans worked out ahead of time by the staff of the commanding general are coordinated with the plans of the tactical command, so as not to allow congestion of the roads in the area. And particular care is made that slow-moving vehicles are directed to proceed on less important side roads. In some cases, evacuation by train, wholly or in part, may be preferable, and even necessary. Or in other cases, evacuation by ship may be advisable. Here the procedure is the same as by land. The movement is guided by the military police. No matter what means of transportation is used, the ultimate destination of any compulsory movement is the evacuation area, which most often is another town further to the rear. This will be the evacuees more or less permanent home until arrangements can be made for their return to the town they have had to abandon. Immediately after dismounting from the trucks, families which might have been separated during travel will be regrouped. Then together they will go to the billeting officer who will make every effort to house them as one unit under one roof. Whenever possible, townspeople will take groups into their own homes, while other groups will be quartered in barracks assigned for their use. There each entrance may be clearly marked for purposes of identification and registration. For the first few days, foodstuffs may have to be furnished by the army from captured enemy supplies or local resources. If so, meals are prepared in community kitchens by the evacuees themselves. Then later as the people get settled, they are given ration books so that individual families can draw their own separate rations and be able to cook for themselves. But ultimately they must become self-sufficient and earn their keep in order not to burden the inhabitants of their foster town. Miscellaneous jobs of all sorts keep most of them busy and provide them with a decent livelihood and a chance to regain their self-respect. Some of them may require hospital care provided by the local relief agencies. But all of them for the duration of their stay here are under recognized and established authority. And the duration of that stay may be a week or a month or even a year. But as soon as it's possible for them to return to their homes, their repatriation will take place. This movement too will be thoroughly supervised. And of course, it will almost always be very willingly undertaken, so they come home. Even though the home is not as it used to be, curated areas, they are bringing home their same few possessions and a few new ones, like a smile and a new hope. But most of all, they bring a desire to dig away the rubble, to plant their roots again, to begin a new life, the kind of life for which we all have fought and suffered and for which we will continue to fight. The kind of life which is retained only at the price of constant vigilance. Now and until people's everywhere can dig again in their own native soil, unafraid and free.