workers, a system already adopted some time ago in Anglo-Saxon countries by all important industrial, commercial and agricultural organisations, with excellent results. 1 The second part of this pamphlet was sent in the form of an open letter to the Director General of the League of Red Cross Societies. The author was prompted to do this for various reasons, the chief among these being - as he himself was the first to acknowledge with extreme satisfaction the close agreement in many points of his project with the programme of the League. This project comprises a plan of propaganda based on wide documentation and inspired by very modern conceptions. These have as their premise the no longer disputable axiom that whoever wishes to bring about a real and suitable improvement of sanitary and social conditions among a nation, must not confine himself to working through legislators and institutions, but realise the great importance of persuading the masses of the necessity of bringing about such improvement so that public opinion, being convinced of this truth, may cooperate in full accord with these legislators and institutions. It may be objected that Professor Levi's plan is too far-reaching and ambitious, and that for this reason it would be difficult to find to-day an organisation capable of undertaking its realisation; this does not, however, in any way detract from the value of Professor Levi's publication, which appears to us of great utility, especially as a guide for the elaboration of a complete programme of social welfare propaganda. The relations between the new institute and the Italian Red Cross are most cordial, and this is only natural in view of the fact that Professor Levi's plan was submitted to the League of Red Cross Societies with the approval of the chairman of the Italian Red Cross. An attentive examination of the pamphlet entitled "Social Medicine for the Protection of Life and Labour " will suffice to dispell all doubts as to a possible duplication of activities by these two organisations. We will recall once more that the institute is not concerned with direct action, but with investigation, consultation, coordination and, above all, propaganda. These functions can all be carried on as work collateral with that of the Italian Red Cross, or of other greater or smaller welfare associations, without any danger of overlapping. Thus, while the work of these organisations will be essential to the institute itself, the propaganda and documentation, which are the main means of action of the latter, will be a most valuable aid, not to be dispensed with by welfare associations, whether official or voluntary, having as their object to improve health conditions for mankind and to mitigate its sufferings, both physical and moral. The field of action of these social workers is unlimited and includes schools, factories, offices, settlements, hospitals, dispensaries, ports of emigration and immigration, etc. The League of Red Cross Societies is happy to note the affinity between its programme and the plan outlined above as it is the proof that the considerations which prompted the Red Cross Societies to constitute the League-which has as one of its aims to improve public health conditions throughout the world and relies for the realisation of this purpose on the common interest and the co-operation of all nations are not to be taken as an isolated phenomenon, but, on the contrary, as the result of the conditions imposed on humanity by the after-math of war, and for this reason it is only logical that these conditions be constantly kept in mind by all who are interested in social health problems. The League of Red Cross Societies ARGENTINE Cruz Roja Argentina Sar - Milch miento 643, BUENOS AIRES. AUSTRALIA: Australian Red Cross Society Federal Government House, MELBOURNE. AUSTRIA: Bundesleitung der Oesterreichischen Gesellschaft vom Koten Kreuze. gasse 1, WIEN, 1. BELGIUM: Croix-Rouge de Belgique - 80, rue de Livourne, BRUXELLES BRAZIL Cruz Vermelha Brazileira Rua INDIA: Indian Red Cross Society winter), SIMLA (in summer). ITALY Croce Rossa Italiana cana, ROMA. DELHI (in 10, Via Tos Shiba, TOKIO. JAPAN Japanese Red Cross NEW ZEALAND: New Zealand Red Cross PERU: Sociedad Peruana de la Cruz Roja, LIMA. SOUTH AFRICA South African Red Cross MADRID. 30, rue HOLLAND: Het Nederlandsche Roode Kruis - 27, "rincessgracht, 's GRAVENHAGE. HUNGARY: Ungarisches Rotes Kreuz Andrassy-ut 8, BUDAPEST VI. YUGO-SLAVIA: Red Cross Society of the Serbs, BOARD OF GOVERNORS HENRY P. DAVISON, American Red Cross, Chairman. M. GIOVANNI CIRAOLO, Senator, Italian Red Cross. Dr. F. BLOCK, Swedish Red Cross. Dr. M. CALMON DU PIN E ALMEIDA, Brazilian Red Cross. Dr. E. ANDREAE, Argentine Red Cross. Dr. A. DEPAGE, Senator, Belgian Red Cross. The VISCOUNTESS NOVAR, Australian Red Cross. Dr. F. SVENDSEN, Danish Red Cross. Dr. YEVREM ZUJOVIĆ, Yugo-Slav Red Cross. M. R. B. BENNETT, Canadian Red Cross. SIR CLAUDE H. HILL, Acting Director General, Vice-Chairman. The above order of names follows the date of appointment The Bulletin of the League of Red Cross Societies is Teleph.: Stand 1900. Telegraphic address: LICROSS Subscription for one year: 5 francs (Swiss). THE LEAGUE OF RED CROSS SOCIETIES AND THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE. The speeches by Sir Claude Hill, Director General of the League of Red Cross Societies, and of Dr. René Sand, Secretary General, which are reproduced below in extenso, were delivered in Geneva on November 9 before the members of the Third International Labour Conference, the press and public being also present. Lord Burnham, chairman of the conference, after thanking the speakers, congratulated the League for having undertaken a work of vital importance and one in which the International Labour Office is deeply interested, adding that he felt certain the League could count on the active sympathy of the delegates attending the conference, who, he hoped, on returning to their respective countries, would not fail to stimulate their national Red Cross Societies to intensify their peacetime activities along the lines which the League had adopted. In conclusion, the chairman hoped that such stimulation would bring about an active cooperation. SPEECH BY SIR CLAUDE H. HILL. desire first of all to express my sincere thanks to the administration of this Conference for their courtesy in extending to the League of Red Cross Societies their hospitality to-day and enabling us to explain why it is that the League believes that its aims and activities are a subject of close interest and concern to the International Labour Office and to the matters with which the present Conference is concerned. I know how busy this Conference is, and I will endeavour to take up as little of your time as possible. In order to save translations, I have arranged that a French and English transcript of my own and Dr. Sand's remarks shall be placed in your hands immediately after this meeting. I propose now in English to give a brief account of the foundation, objects, organisation and programme of the League, and then to ask Dr. René Sand, the Secretary General, to explain, in French, the system of education in popular hygiene and preventive medicine by which the League hopes to create and develop a public consciousness of the subject and a popular will to diminish preventible disease and so reduce to a minimum both the economic loss to the nations of the world and the human misery which are the outcome of the existing ignorance of and carelessness regarding the subject. The League of Red Cross Societies was created, on the inspiration of Mr. Henry P. Davison, at that time Chairman of the War Council of the American Red Cross, by agreement between the Red Cross Societies of America, France, Great Britain, Italy and Japan; and, since I must be brief here, I am going to ask you to read, at your leisure, the pamphlet, which I will distribute after the meeting, describing the League's "Work and Aims" from which I will only read the quotation from Art. 2 of the "Articles of Association: The primary purposes of the League are: I. 'To encourage and promote in every country in the world the establishment and development of a duly authorised voluntary national Red Cross organisation, having as purposes the improvement of health, the prevention of disease, and the mitigation of suffering throughout the world, and to secure the cooperation of such organisations for these purposes. 2. 'To promote the welfare of mankind by furnishing a medium for bringing within the reach of all the peoples the benefits to be derived from present known facts and new contributions to science and medical knowledge and their application. ' 3. To furnish a medium for co-ordinating relief work in case of great national or international calamities. ' The founders of the League felt that the great national effort that had been put forth during the war by all Red Cross Societies had resulted in the establishment of organisations for the relief of human suffering which it would be lamentable to allow to disappear. Mr. Davison persuaded the American Red Cross Society that great Society which has done so much for the relief of suffering in Europe during the past five years to allot funds for the maintenance of the League during its earlier years of existence: during what may be termed its experimental period. He and the other founders with keen foresight also realised that, if the League was to be the means of creating an agency for the relief of human suffering on the vast horizon which they visualised, it must be planned and organised upon a democratic basis, and the League in its turn proposes, at the next meeting of its Council, to submit a programme for approval which is based upon the mobilisation of the people of all classes, races and creeds, through the agency of the national Red Cross Societies, in the cause of popular health instruction. It is not generally realised that the loss of efficient lives in peace time, through preventible causes, far exceeds the losses in war. For example, in the few months of the influenza epidemic in India in 1918, alone, 6 million deaths occurred. Many of these lives could have been saved had the people had knowledge. It is still less appreciated though much is being taught today on the subject what an appal ing loss, in disability and inefficiency, is caused to industry and human well-being by the prevalence of preventible ill-health. Some exceedingly interesting and instructive figures were recently published by the Ministry of Health in England, and Dr. René Sand, in his work "L'Organisation Industrielle, la Médecine Sociale et l'Education Civique en Angleterre et aux Etats-Unis " (Paris, Baillière, 1920), has furnished some most convincing statistics. I will only quote three examples all taken from officially published documents. The Federal Public Health Department in Washington estimates |