PA

REVIEW

The outstanding date for the League of Red Cross Societies, in the year 1922, was the 6th of May. Three years almost to a day after the foundation of the League, Henry Pomeroy Davison, to whose vision and initiative this great Red Cross federation was due, died at the early age of 55.

Mr. Davison had, however, lived to see the first stage in the realization of his vision brought to a conclusion, and to learn that the Red Cross Societies of the world had unanimously rallied to his conception of constituting themselves into a great permanent force working steadily and continuously in time of peace as in time of war for the alleviation of human suffering.

The second General Council of the League which met at the end of March had been able, after surveying and discussing the experiments made during the preceding three years, to formulate recommendations which constitute the broad lines of a permanent and universal peacetime programme universal in the truest sense because one of the first acts of the Second Council was to affirm the freedom of the League from any trace of national or political prejudice, by voting a resolution in favour of the early admission of all the recoguized Red Cross Societies of the world (1).

The General Council brought together over a hundred delegates from thirty-five national Red Cross Societies. This in itself is a striking testimony to the interest felt by national Red Cross Societies in the new development which the Red Cross movement is taking and in the international and collective

(1) Six new Societies entered the League during 1922: The Red Cross Societies of Colombia, Costa Rica, Danzig, Esthonia, Germany, and Paraguay. The Turkish Red Crescent has ben invited to join the League, but has not yet replied.

activities of the League. An equally striking manifestation of this interest is afforded by the fact that for the financial year 1922/23 contributions to the budget of the League have been voluntarily placed at the disposal of the Secretariat by no less than eighteen of the national Societies. The American Red Cross, whose generosity carried the whole burden of the League's expenses during the experimental period which preceded the second Meeting of the General Council, is still bearing by far the greatest part of the load; but it cannot fail to be a source of satisfaction to that Society to find that the sister organizations in other countries, severely handicapped as many of them are financially are already sufficiently deeply interested in the work of the League and sufficiently convinced of its utility to them, to contribute, in the proportion which their means allow, to the expenses of its international organism.

The recommendations of the General Council pointed towards the adoption by Red Cross Societies the world over of peacetime programmes aimed at increasing the resources actually and potentially at their disposal, and maintaining the interest and support of the public, so that they may not only contribute effectually to the alleviation of human suffering in normal times, but also be better equipped thereby to fulfil the fundamental duty incumbent upon them in time of war. The chief means recommended to this end by the Council were the development of Red Cross organization upon democratic lines, the development of Junior membership, the organization of popular health instruction upon an extensive scale, and the institution and improvement of public health nursing services.

It will not be possible, until a certain time has

elapsed, to judge of the success of the efforts made by the different Red Cross Societies to carry the programme thus formulated into practical effect. The next occasion upon which delegates from all national Societies meet to report upon and compare their experiences in the field of peacetime work will present the greatest interest from this point of view. Meantime, it is significant that new Red Cross Societies are being formed not only in the new States which owe their formation or their resurrection to the Great War, but also in countries which until now had held aloof from the international fraternity of the Red Cross (1); and that these new Societies have as their first object the undertaking of activities analagous to those described in the resolutions of the General Council of the League. It is also of happy augury that a general desire has manifested itself on the part of a number of S ;cieties, and these not the least progressive nor the least enthusiastic, to proceed by means of regional conferences to further formulation of their programmes of work in peacetime, adapting to the geographical, economic and social conditions of the part of the world in which they lie, the general programme adopted by the General Council. The first of these regional conferences was held in Bangkok at the end of November; the second will take place at Warsaw in April 1923 and the third in South America before the close of the year.

Co-operation and co-ordination of their activities have always been an ideal which Red Cross Societies have sought to attain. These regional conferences constitute a most important step towards its attainment. Another satisfactory development in the same direction is the ever increasing closeness of relationship existing between the national Societies and the Secretariat of the League. The members of the Secretariat find themselves called upon more and more frequently for advice and assistance.

(1) During 1922, Red Cross Societies which are only awaiting the final recognition of the International Committee of Geneva, were organized in Albania, Bolivia, Ecuador and Egypt. There are also unrecognized Red Cross Societies in Latvia and Lithuania, which are receiving the support of the League.

In order to keep the officers of the different national Societies more fully informed of the activities of other Societies, and of those of the League Secretariat, the latter inaugurated at the beginning of 1922 a monthly Information Circular, aimed at supplementing for those who are most actively concerned in Red Cross work in each country the information which appears in The World's Health (1). This circular has encountered general approval and increasingly wide demand.

During the year 1922, the headquarters of almost every Red Cross Society in Europe have been visited by one or more members of the League Secretariat, and the Director General on his way to the Bangkok Conference has been able to establish personal touch with the headquarters of some of the more remote Societies. Those of the Latin American countries will be visited by a delegate of the Secretariat in the course of the present year. Similarly the visit of representatives of national Societies to the headquarters of the League are increasing in frequency and nominees of three Societies have already spent a period of several weeks each at the new headquarters in Paris, studying the documentation assembled by the Secretariat and gathering from the experience of other Societies ideas for development in their own countries.

The transfer of the seat of the League from Geneva to Paris has played an important part in making possible this closer relationship between the Secretariat and the national Societies. The transfer, which took place at the end of August, had recommended itself to the General Council, not only

headquarters in Geneva. The agreement signed in April 1921 with the International Red Cross Committee of Geneva cast the responsibility for certain. very important features of the international work of the Red Cross upon a Joint Council composed of members of that Committee and members of the League Secretariat. This Joint Council continues to meet in Geneva as heretofore. Again the Counsellor of the League in International Public Health matters, Professor Santoliquido, represents the League on the Health Committee of the League of Nations, and the latter relies upon the co-operation of the Popular Health Instruction Division of the Secretariat of the League of Red Cross Societies. for technical assistance in regard to health propaganda, and training courses, in connexion with its anti-epidemic activities in Eastern Europe. The League of Nations has also sought the COoperation of the League of Red Cross Societies in the matter of an educational campaign against opium, a question which occupied a prominent place on the agenda of the recent conference at Bangkok.

The International Labour Office also maintains close co-operative relationship with the League of Red Cross Societies. The improvement of the health of workers is the common preoccupation of both bodies, and the International Labour Conference which met in October of last year again laid stress on the importance of the Red Cross Societies. co-operating with employers' and employees' organizations in this matter. An interesting experiment upon these lines is being made by the Belgian Red Cross with the assistance of the League Secretariat.

A small liaison office has been maintained in Geneva with the object of preserving the necessary contact with these very important bodies.

The Secretariat, since its establishment in Paris, has on the other hand been able to establish more intimate contact than was previously possible with a number of important organizations, including the Office International d'Hygiène Publique, the Pasteur Institute, and the Rockefeller Foundation. The latter body has shown particular interest in the programme adopted by the General Council of the League and a disposition to co-operate in its reali

zation which cannot fail to be of material benefit to a number of National Red Cross Societies.

In conformity with the instructions of the General Council, no substantial change in the composition of the Secretariat has been made since its reorganization at the end of 1921, except that the Division of Venereal Diseases, which had been provisionally dispensed with, has been re-established under a new Director. The Tuberculosis Division continues to function as the Secretariat of the International Union for Combating Tuberculosis, and the Child Welfare Division to supervise and stimulate the child welfare activities of Red Cross Societies, especially in Eastern Europe.

The Nursing Division opened the third of the International Courses for teachers in Public Health Nursing instituted in London under its auspices in October, the 1922-23 class comprising 18 students from 15 different countries. The graduates of the previous courses remain in contact with the Division, and those of them who are actually the first pioneers of Public Health Nursing in their respective countries furnish reports which are full of promise for the development of this invaluable service all over the world. The Nursing Division also continues to exercise supervision over the recently formed nurses' training schools of Belgrade and Bucarest. The European Council of Nurses, which was constituted last year, has manifested its confidence in the Nursing Division of the League by confiding to the latter the arrangements for a conference which is to meet in Paris under the auspices of the Council in March.

If it be true that the interest of the growing generation is the surest index of the strength of a great movement, the Red Cross may look forward with confidence to the future. Junior membership in the National Societies continues to increase. The activities of the Junior members of the Red Cross are becoming constantly more extensive and more varied and the teaching profession, always suspicious when an educational movement is first launched in any country, is rallying to it with increasing confidence. The work of the Junior Red Cross Division of the League Secretariat has been

appreciably facilitated since the transfer to Paris by the constant contact which it is now able to maintain with the European Commission of the Junior American Red Cross. Frequent demands from the 24 Societies which have organized Junior membership have been and are being met by this Division, which furnishes them with advice and with literature regarding the Junior movement.

The monthly review published by the League and which, at the beginning of 1922, was given the title of The World's Health has continued to appear. It is hoped that the slightly different form in which this publication is now produced for the first time will meet with the approval of readers. The other publications of the League during the past year included a two-volume compilation of the reports and proceedings of the Second General Council, the report on the etiology of typhus fever prepared by the Scientific Commission which conducted investigations on this subject in Poland under the League's auspices in 1920, the reports of the Congress held in Paris in 1920 to revise the statistical nomenclature of the causes of death, and of the Venereal Disease Conferences held in Copenhagen, Prague and Paris in 1921, a pamphlet dealing with the origin, activities and purposes of the League, a leaflet concerning Public Health Nursing Associations and an illustrated pamphlet entitled The Junior Red Cross » (1). During the present year there will appear, in addition to The World's Health, full reports of the Bangkok and Warsaw Conferences.

The year 1923 promises to mark an epoch in the history of the Red Cross. It will be remembered that the Tenth International Red Cross Conference, which met in Geneva in 1921, expressed the desire that the International Red Cross Committee, which had hitherto convoked International Conferat intervals of ten years on the average, should call the Eleventh Conference within a relatively short lapse of time. The revision of the Geneva Convention upon lines calculated to bring

ences

(1) Copies of any of these publications may be obtained from the Secretariat upon request,

this instrument into accord with modern conditions of warfare was recommended by the Tenth Conference, which indeed drew up a provisional set of proposals to this end. The International Committee of Geneva, which is historically associated with the Convention, is most naturally and properly anxious that this revision should not be postponed longer than is necessary, and has consequently convoked the Eleventh Conference to meet at the end of August of this year in order to approve a draft for submission to a diplomatic conference in 1924 which will undertake the actual task of revision. The Red Cross Societies of the world are more keenly alive than ever to the fact that their essential raison d'être lies in the assistance that they can render to the sick, wounded and prisoners of armies and navies in war time. Their peacetime activities are calculated not to replace this primordial function, but to render Red Cross Societies stronger and better fitted to fulfil it. It may be anticipated that they will follow the proceedings of the Eleventh Conference with the most eager and enthusiastic interest an interest which will be augmented by the nature of the other questions which figure on the agenda.

It appears not impossible that far-reaching results may accrue from the discussions which will take place at this Conference concerning the future international organization of the Red Cross. Interesting proposals in this connexion may no doubt be expected as a result of the discussions which are to take place shortly on this subject between representatives of the Geneva Committee and of the Board of Governors of the League of Red Cross Societies. The conclusion arrived at in this regard will moreover undoubtedly take into account the most interesting proposal brought forward by Senator Ciraolo (1) for the constitution of an effective international relief organization under the aegis of the Red Cross. The function of the Red Cross in the relief of disaster-stricken populations was not neglected by the General Council of the League, and

(1) See The World's Health, Vol. III, No. 10, October 1922, p. 449.

the Secretariat, in accordance with the Council's instructions, is pursuing a close study of the international aspect of this question, the results of which will be communicated to the National Red Cross Societies in due course. The Red Cross movement, which has already made for itself a respected place in the social organization of the world, would be yet further consolidated and its power for good increased, if there should emerge from the discussions of

the Eleventh Conference a single International Organization emanating from and responsible to all the National Red Cross Societies of the world for the fulfilment of all the essential international functions of the Red Cross - its activities in time of war, its relief action in calamity, and its permanent educational campaign for the betterment of the health of the world.

head of the French Society for Aid to the Wounded

66

Where no woman is,

there groan the sick and

needy ". It almost seems

as if only the presence of

a woman can banish pain and suffering ".

This quotation calls to mind the life of Madame d'Haussonville, the life

of all French womanhood

during the war. How could the struggle against pain and suffering have been carried on behind the lines if the women had not been there? In such terribles trugles between nation and nation,

where everything lies in < the hand of fate, victory is

decided behind the lines. Behind our lines we held good; behind his lines the enemy broke. That is what we owe to our women; they saved both body

(Société de Secours aux Blessés militaires) was one of those strong women in whose hands lay the fate of a whole generation; a strong woman and yet full of gentleness

a womanly woman above all, for no one ever

did good with less pedantry and more kindness of heart.

Those who never knew the Countess d'Haussonville in the bloom of her youth can little imagine her charm. At sight of her the words incessu patuit dea rose to one's lips. She had a queenly bearing, a slim and graceful

figure, a fair complexion, chestnut hair drawn

back from her forehead, a frank expression of penetrating friendliness, engaging gestures and kind (1) Published by Gabalda, 90, rue Bonaparte, Paris.