It may well be concluded that no organization or "unit" formed to deal with a flood, fire or explosion or disaster, can hereafter be regarded as complete unless in addition to doctors, nurses, relief workers and administrators there is also a due proportion of trained medical social workers. If twelve years ago medical social service received its baptism, Halifax has been its confirmation day.[117] [117] Davis, Michael M., Jr., "Medical Social Service in a Disaster," _Survey_, vol. xxxix, no. 25 (March 23, 1918), p. 675. The children's service was thorough, as it should have been. If the measure of success in disaster relief is the treatment which the children receive, Halifax relief was above reproach. The children's laws of the province are carefully drawn and adequate, the Superintendent of Neglected and Delinquent Children is a man of singular ability and has wide powers. He became chairman of a strong children's committee with which were associated, besides representatives of the children's institutions, two child-welfare workers of high reputation. This committee came in contact with upwards of five hundred families, including more than fifteen hundred children. Their work dealt with the special problems listed below. More permanent supervision was assumed by the Government Commission about five months after the disaster. The modern principle of the widest possible child-placing was encouraged, the effort being to keep children with parents and wherever necessary to subsidize families rather than institutions. The work of the children's committee consisted of 1. Getting urgent temporary repairs made to existing children's institutions. 2. Investigating cases to ascertain if children were in proper custody and receiving proper care. 3. Procuring necessary articles of clothing, _etc._, for children. 4. Hunting for "missing" children, identifying "unclaimed" children, and restoring children to their parents. 5. Interviewing hundreds of people who were: (a) hunting for lost children; (b) wishing to adopt homeless children; (c) arranging for the care of children. 6. Attending to a large correspondence, mostly regarding the adoption of children, for which upwards of a thousand applications were received. 7. Arranging for and supervising the transfer of children from hospitals, shelters, _etc._, the committee in most cases having sent some one to accompany the children. 8. Arranging for temporary maintenance, permanent care, pensions and compensations or allowances for children, including the finding of permanent homes. 9. Locating and referring to the proper agencies a number of wounded children. 10. Getting possession of children unlawfully taken possession of by improper persons. 11. Arranging for the proper guardianship of certain children.[118] [118] Blois, Ernest H., _Report of Superintendent of Neglected and Delinquent Children_ (Halifax, 1918), p. 110.