Of all the European unions, the Latin Union has the smallest number of Protestants. With a population of about one hundred and ten millions, there are not more than one million Protestants in the whole field, and they are largely settled in French Switzerland.
The Central European Conference was organized in 1884, and is to-day known as the Roman or French-Swiss Conference; thus this is the oldest field in Europe. However, the work has moved forward slowly. When the Central European Mission was opened, there were included within its territory the countries embraced in the German Union Conference, but as the work grew, it was divided.
Even in Switzerland itself, we now have two divisions—German Switzerland and French Switzerland; and in what was formerly the German part of the Central European Mission we have the present German Union Conference. However, there is yet plenty of territory in the Latin Union; for it includes, aside from French Switzerland, the countries of France, French Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and the French colonies in northern Africa. Most of the work in the union has been done in French Switzerland. Some efforts had formerly been put forth in France and Italy, but they could hardly be termed permanent. It is only within the last few years that we have in reality begun to work France and Italy, and we have but recently made a beginning in French Belgium, Spain, and Portugal. Thus every country of the European portion of the Latin Union has been opened. What we need yet to enter are the African colonies of France, as Algeria and Tunis.
As all continental Europe was at one time embraced within the territory of the Central European field, the Basel house served well as the general headquarters and publishing house; but the base of operations was changed on account of the troubles we had in Basel with reference to the Sunday laws there, and especially as we were able to secure far better facilities in Germany for our printing and publishing work. The Basel house was then converted into a sanitarium and food factory; but as it was not originally intended for such purposes, and it furnished room for only a limited number of patients at best, and as Basel is a German city, while we were trying to conduct in it a training-school for the education of French nurses, the reader can readily see that we have always had to work at great disadvantage in conducting our health work here. We needed a French training-school for nurses and workers in a French-speaking district.
LATIN UNION CONFERENCE TRAINING-SCHOOL
Brother Wilkinson had two institutes for workers, one in Geneva and the other in Paris, but these were of short duration, and the brethren felt that for this great field, with its millions and millions who should hear the message, we certainly ought to have a permanent school for the education of native laborers.
Realizing this need, we have tried for two years to find either in French Switzerland or in France a suitable place for the training-school we desired16to establish. We desired to sell the Basel house, that we might release the capital tied up in that property; but the financial conditions of the country have been such that we have not been able to accomplish this; so we turned our attention to the possibility of making an exchange of the Basel property for a more suitable location in French Switzerland. One great advantage of this arrangement would be that it would enable us to conduct the food factory on Swiss soil. The food factory has been, up to the present time, financially the paying factor in our Swiss sanitarium work. On account of the customs, we could not advantageously import our health foods into Switzerland; hence the necessity of continuing the work inside of the Swiss border.
THE MANSION
A little more than two years ago, while the leading brethren from America were here to assist us in our councils, it was decided that the Basel property be disposed of, and that the capital invested in it be equitably divided among the Latin Union, the French-Swiss, the German-Swiss, and the German Union fields. At the same time, in view of the money on hand, it was advised that the Latin Union conduct its evangelical work from the cash thus secured. This capital had been saved up through great economy on the part of the management, and through the liberality of our brethren who were anxious to help in the cause of God. As a number of workers were sent over from America, and the evangelical work was extended, about twelve thousand dollars of this capital has been consumed. Then, as the publishing work was moved from Basel later on, it took about seven thousand dollars from them in stock, and now all the capital at the disposition of the Latin Union and French-Swiss fields is about thirty-five thousand dollars.
Finally, at the time of our French-Swiss camp-meeting last summer, we were informed that a suitable property had been found for our needs, on Lake Geneva. In company with Brother Spicer, we visited the place. It at once impressed us very favorably. Here was a large estate with forty acres of fine oak timber, several hundred years old. There are a number of good buildings on the farm. It is an ideal location for a sanitarium and school. It lies nearly midway between Geneva and Lausanne, two of the largest cities in Switzerland, about sixteen miles from the first-mentioned city. The main pike thoroughfare between Geneva and Lausanne runs through the place, and there is a railway station about one mile away. Three miles distant is the steamship landing on the lake.
Of course we did not contemplate taking the whole estate. The owner, an elderly gentleman of Lyons, had probably invested one hundred and twenty thousand dollars in this property. His wife had died, and his son had been lost to him through misfortune, so he felt anxious to sell the estate, that he might be relieved of the burden of caring for it. However, he had no inclination to take over the property at Basel, so we had to deal through the agent, who did not have very much capital at his disposal. This agent bought the whole estate, and sold that part which is under cultivation to the man who had been farming it for some time, and we bought the other part of the land, the agent agreeing, as one of the conditions of the bargain, to dispose of the Basel house at a stipulated sum before a specified time. We receive about eighty acres, with the main buildings. This is a most ideal spot for the sanitarium and school. As there was a large cow stable for about forty cows, and the barn was close to the mansion, we had to take these, and pay five thousand dollars extra; otherwise we could have made an even deal.
Thus, while in Basel we had only a city lot and a building sufficiently large to accommodate about twenty patients, and very limited room for the food factory, we now have a location as suitable for our wishes as we could desire. We already have room for the accommodation of twenty patients and as many students. We have about one thousand feet, well walled, on the lake front, where we can erect our sea baths, and there is plenty of room for the sun-baths. We now need to provide some treatment rooms and more rooms for patients, and to remodel the barn into a food factory and living-rooms.
