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THE ARMY & NAVY CLUB. Halifax, N. S., February 8m 1918.
Professor Macmechan, Chronicle Bldg., City.
Dear Sir: When talking to you this morning, I omitted to state that the work being done by the Military Search Parties in the Northend was discontinued on January 11th. On this date, the General Officer commanding the District placed me in charge of what is known as the Military Housing Committee and with a staff of officers, I established an office in the Army & Navy Club. The work of this committee was to take steps to house the families of all Canadian soldiers who were rendered homeless by the disaster. This, of course, includes families of men who are serving overseas, aswellas, families of men doing duty in the garrison. I have fifty engineers at my disposal, who are employed in making repairs to houses in which people are still living, with a view to make them temporarily habitable. We have fifty of these houses in hand at the present time and it is quite likely before I am thru, we shall have repaired seventy or eighty houses. The military families, of course, come in for their share of the new dwellings that are being erected on the Garrison Grounds, on the Common and at the Exhibition Grounds. In addition to the housing work, I have written up files on nearly five hundred military families and am acting in an advisory capacity to the Rehabilitation committee, when questions arise in connection with food relief, pay etc. This work, I presume will continue indefinitely.
Yours very truly, B B Simmonds
Lieut. Colonel. 66th Regt. P.L.F. i/c Military Housing Committee.