In the late fall of 1940, having already provided shelter for the crews of twelve torpedoed vessels, SCI welcomed 256 British children, brought to 25 South Street on British Ships to escape the German "Blitz" back home. The arrangements were made at the request of the Chairman of the U.S. Committee for the Care of European Children, Mr. Marshall Field, who asked Rev. Harold H. Kelley, then Director of SCI, if the Institute could give temporary shelter to the children before they were placed with American families. The children, ranging in age from four to fifteen, made themselves at home at the Institute among the adult seamen. Upon seeing the Battery sea wall, one young boy wondered "Where are your guns?" suggesting that the Americans better "hurry up and get some more right away!" Another child, upon seeing the Second and Third Avenue elevated subway was shocked at the "waste" of steel, explaining that "My mommy had to turn in all her aluminum pots and pans to the Government." See The Lookout 1940 October (http://qcarchives.com/sci/items/show/1228)