[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 64 (Thursday, May 10, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E785]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         HONORING THE VILLAGE OF SAINT PARIZE LE CHATEL, FRANCE

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 10, 2001

  Mr. DELAHUNT. Mr. Speaker, in cities and towns all across America, 
Memorial Day will be marked with parades down Main Street, patriotic 
speeches on the town square and little league games in the park. But 
for others--families and surviving comrades in arms--it is a day of 
pilgrimage to cemeteries and memorials, for a moment of remembrance.
  For some, this pilgrimage takes them to places far away from that 
town square; to places made infamous through the fury of war, and where 
now, peace holds its gentle sway.
  One such pilgrimage will take place in the French Village of Saint 
Parize le Chatel and its neighboring hamlet, Moiry. During World War I, 
this area was home to one of the largest US Army hospitals, the Camp 
Mars-sur Allier. Its 44,000 beds were filled with wounded Americans who 
went off to fight for peace and liberty in the homeland of Lafayette.
  After the Armistice, the villagers of Saint Parize le Chaatel and 
Moiry built a monument to this hospital on the site of a cemetery where 
over 2,000 victims of the war are buried. Inscribed on the memorial--
AUX AMERICANS MORTS POUR LA FRANCE LE DROIT ET LA LIBERTE 1916-1918--to 
the Americans who died for France, Right and Liberty.
  On this Memorial Day, a permanent exhibit commemorating the hospital, 
its staff and the soldiers and civilians who died and recovered there 
will open. At this ceremony, in an expression of the strong friendship 
between the United States and France, a new walkway to the memorial 
will be dedicated.
  I know that all my colleagues join with me in an expression of 
gratitude to the people of Saint Parize le Chatel and Moiry for their 
desire to ensure an appropriate and lasting memorial to those Americans 
who gave so unselfishly of themselves in the name of peace and freedom.

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