From the Conference Report, April 1940 –
Withdrawal of European Missionaries
I would like to say just a few words about the withdrawal of the missionaries from Europe. On August 24, 1939, it becoming increasingly apparent that our missionaries were not welcome either in the belligerent or neutral countries of western Europe, the European Mission Presidents were requested to send to America all missionaries, except a very few who would remain temporarily to man the various Mission headquarters.
We were blessed in having in Europe at the time Elder Joseph Fielding Smith and Sister Smith to counsel with the various Mission Presidents and take general direction of the situation. There were in our Missions at the time, including the wives and children of the Presidents, 697 persons, of whom 611 were young men and 63 young women missionaries, the other 23 were Mission Presidents, their wives and children.
The first missionary group from Europe landed in New York September 7, and the last group, accompanied by Elder Joseph Fielding Smith, and Sister Smith, landed on November 6th, 1939.
These returning missionaries were received by President Frank Evans and Sister Evans at the Eastern States Mission headquarters in New York. The missionaries returned in 23 ships, each of which had to be met and the missionaries transported to their temporary quarters. The heavy baggage handled exceeded 1,500 pieces; there were more than 10,000 letters and other mailed parcels. Each of these 674 missionaries had to be housed and cared for. Many landed without funds, and funds had to be advanced to them – some 146 small loans were made, all repaid except one small item. The money received from parents had to be distributed, there were telegrams and cablegrams to handle, and office supplies to furnish and numerous other acts of helpfulness.
Furthermore, as the bulk of these missionaries had not filled a full term mission they had to be reassigned upon arrival to new fields of labor. President John H. Taylor of the First Council of Seventy was sent to New York to direct this work. Of the 674 missionaries, 414 Elders and 32 lady missionaries were reassigned, the rest were released.
President and Sister Evans had charge also of getting these 446 reassigned missionaries off to their new fields of labor, and the 228 released off to their homes.
– J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
Wow! This shows a side of that event I’ve never thought of! The Bureaucracy. I can’t imagine being President and Sister Evans and having to receive all those incoming missionaries! Where did they house them all and how did they feed them?
Hotels and rooming houses, for the most part, Bruce. Just keeping track of everybody and where they had been stashed overnight must have been a logistical nightmare!
And thus we see that a substantial part of the work of the church consists of the mundane details of moving people from one part of the world to another and arranging to feed and house them, and getting baggage and money into the right hands so the real work can move forward.
My uncle was released from his service in the British Mission on July 26, 1939. (Thanks, Millennial Star.) He and his traveling companion, Burton S. Miller, then spent four weeks traveling in Europe, departed from LeHavre on the SS George Washington, and arrived in New York on August 31. I trust that he was not included in the numbers that Pres. Clark referred to.
Having been “lost” (or temporarily misplaced) by the MTC for an afternoon, despite the existence of good and established systems for keeping track of disoriented missionaries, I can hardly imagine trying to move around hundreds of missionaries on short notice, over the course of a couple months, without losing any of them.
It would be amazing enough to pull this off today — how much more so in the days before computers, e-mail, and cell phones.
I didn’t realize what a rare bird my aunt was. She was reassigned from England to Tennessee, reversing the order of her grandfather’s service almost 60 years eaarlier.