a National Department of Public Health was established in 1918 since which time a growing organization has been built covering a large part of the country. But because of the difficulty of securing trained workers and adequate co-operation on the part of the people the department is not yet operating to the fullest satisfaction. The best single unit of public health work to be found is being done in Bangkok which is administered separately under a local sanitary department with a foreign medical officer in charge and nineteen other medical officers under him.

THE SIAMESE RED CROSS

The Siamese Red Cross is a very important factor in public health. It does not have a large popular membership but it is very strong financially. The Queen is president and the society is liberally supported by members of the royal family and wealthy citizens. In a sense it is a semi-government institution and recognized as

such.

Certain forms of public health work such as the maintenance of a laboratry which formerly operated under the Ministry of the Interior have been taken over by the Red Cross. At the time of the Bangkok Conference the delegates witnessed the dedication of a splendid building, the Pasteur Institute, opened by the Red Cross. This institute will do much of the work which ordinarily would come within the jurisdiction of a national department of public health. The Red Cross conducts surveys, maintains hospitals, does research work, helps maintain a leper asylum, engages in health education work and supports a medical service. The strength and standing of this organization may be judged by the fact that the excellent piece of hookworm eradication work which is being done by the International Health Board of the Rockefeller Foundation is affiliated directly with the Siamese Red Cross instead of with the national department of public health as one might expect.

"In Bangkok one finds modern hospitals some of which have the finest equipment, laboratories fro the manufacture of vaccines, ethyl esters, << tiki-tiki", a beriberi preventive. and other remedies. There are also facilities for the chem

ical and bacteriological examination of food. and water supplies. Under government auspices 3,418,444 vaccinations have been performed at the rate of 380,000 per year. On one occasion at the outbreak of a smallpox epidemic in an inaccessible region (Ubol), a medical officer with a large quantity of vaccine and 100 kilograms of emergency supplies was taken over the mountains by airplane and thus reached the scene two weeks earlier than by ordinary methods of travel. The Red Cross now has a special airplane provided by popular subscription which can carry four sick or wounded or a corresponding loan of medical supplies.

"Outside of Bangkok the country is not adequately hospitalized. There are in Siam only fifty scientifically trained medical men in the five hundred who have passed an examination recognized by the government with a certificate. In addition, there are perhaps 10,000 others who are practising the art of healing who have had no training whatever. To provide one qualified doctor to every two thousand of the population, Siam needs 5,000 doctors, or two hundred graduates a year for the next twenty-five years. At present there is no medical school in Siam but plans are under way to provide one by the help of the Medical Education Board of the Rockefeller Foundation.

IN INDIA

In India the leader of public health education for the Chinese people found a problem comparable even to the one which he and his associates are trying to solve. And here he found the greatest obstacles in the attitudes and beliefs of the people themselves, the age old conflict between tradition and new knowledge.

"In comparison with India, the solution of the health problems in these other countries which I have mentioned, difficult though they may be, is mere child's play. India's population is greater than the total population of all Oriental countries excluding China.

"Merely from the standpoint of area and population the public health problem of India is an enormous one. But when to these two factors

you take into consideration the perplexing cross currents of politics, religion, social customs and education, as must be done in order to get a picture of the problem in its natural setting, you have something before you which staggers the imagination. I now believe that not even China presents a more baffling problem.

“India has a very large public health machine which is operated largely by the members of the Indian Medical Service with European and Indian personnel. Each of the important provinces or presidencies has a public health department with a trained European public health officer in charge. He has under his direction the district health officers who may number up to as many as thirty, depending upon the size of the province. The organization extends further down to the local officers or registrars in the municipalities who are supposed to report births, deaths and the presence of certain communicable diseases. Working upwards the activities of the several provincial departments are co-ordinated in the central office of the Public Health Commissioner with the Government of India.

"In every province one finds hospitals, dispensaries, and, in the larger ones, bacteriological laboratories, research institutes, Pasteur Institutes and medical schools. In Calcutta there is a flourishing school of tropical medicine and hygiene. I saw enough of the work of the Indian Medical Service to be deeply impressed with the size of what in China would be considered an "army" of health workers. A great variety of work is being done and large amounts of money are being spent in keeping the public health machine going.

"It is a health machine which it has taken many years to build up. Some of the great medical discoveries of the times have been made by men in that service. I noted the feeling of pride which men took in that organization, and even if you were to see no more than I saw, you would agree that on the whole it was a very fine public health machine, perhaps the finest to be found anywhere in the Orient.

'And yet I was surprised and disappointed. I expected to be confronted by evidence of a great contrast between what I had been accustomed to seeing in China and what I saw in India. I expected that this contrast would be a natural result due to this health conserving machine which had so laboriously been built up over a period of fifty years. Undoubtedly this difference between conditions in India and in China does exist, but not in the degree I expected.

"I think the subject of smallpox offers one of the best illustrations of what can happen to an excellent health machine when politics or religion is injected into its operation. This is the one disease that offers no economic obstacles to its eradication. So far as I can judge even the most spiritualised imagination of the Indian can find nothing wrong about vaccination. I was shown a poster on smallpox and vaccination on which were enumerated five points to remember. One of these points was that it was all right to employ vaccination because the vaccine came from the cow. This point was for the special

benefit of those who held the cow sacred. There is enough machinery in India to wipe out smallpox and make of it a rare and only sporadic disease, but in spite of all the facilities which exist it has not been wiped out. The difficulty of the problem does not lie in the nature of the disease but in human nature. "

Religion, or rather sectarian practices, are, in Dr. Peter's opinion, the greatest obstacles in the way of setting higher standards of health for the Indian people. As he picturesquely puts it," Religion kills more people in India to-day than the British public health machine could save if it were trebled in size and strength ".

He is not hopeless, however, and in his final conclusion expressed his faith in the methods which the Red Cross Societies of the world have undertaken to develop and extend everywhere.

"The greatest means for advancing public health in the Orient at the present lies in actual demonstration and education ".

The "Truce of the Czechoslovak Red Cross ", a sort of modern "Truce of God", was proclaimed in 1921 and in 1922 during Holy Week. For three days each year the Red Cross Truce turns everyone's attention to an ideal above all class disputes, political ambitions and personal animosities. For three days it shows that, above all that divides the social classes, there is one interest, national health which unites us all. For three days it reminds each one of us that there is a great deal of misery and suffering on earth and that love alone can secure social justice, equality and happiness in life. The Red Cross Truce is not a pause to encourage idleness but a pause which should result in work of positive value, a pause to renew health and to increase the value of life.

What would be the value of the idea alone, however, if it did not produce some definite result? In Czechoslovakia in the last two years the result has been splendid. The most influential authorities in the country interested themselves in the Truce. The President of the Republic proclaimed that the foundation of the Czechoslovak Red Cross was one of the most noteworthy acts which had taken place during his presidency. The President of the National Assembly appealed to all deputies to forget all their political quarrels, at least once a year for a short time, and to turn their attention and that of the members of their party towards the poor and suffering. Newspapers representing every political party and every shade of opinionboth dailies and weeklies-which, the evening before, had been full of political controversy, were during the truce given up entirely to messages of peace and neighbourly goodwill.

Articles appeared over the signatures of the head of the government, ministers, political leaders, writers, poets, university professors, doctors and many others interested in education. The Red Cross published leaflets, displayed posters and gave

lectures, using theatres, pulpits and cinema screens for its propaganda. Business men, manufacturers, professors, schoolmasters, intellectual workers, students and every class of the people united in the general revival, not only in the larger towns but also in the villages and in the country.

The declaration of the Truce was made in Prague at a solemn ceremony in the National Theatre. Round the President were grouped the diplomatic corps, ministers and high government officials, scientists, artists, politicians and delegates from all parts of the Republic. The President of the Red Cross explained the rôle of the Red Cross and asked for the collaboration of the whole nation in its work for the health and happiness of humanity. Her speech found its echo in every heart when she cried: "Sow an idea and you will reap an act; acts lead to habits and habits form character. A wellformed character is able to probe the real meaning of life. "

This solemn ceremony, which ended with a programme of entertainment, gave the delegates from other parts of the country a clear understanding of the duties imposed upon them by their position. They took back to their towns and villages a deeper and stronger interest in the Red Cross. This ceremony was followed by a most successful Red Cross spring festival, for the delegates, on their return home, applied themselves with enthusiasm to propaganda, to the collection of funds and to an active membership campaign. They organized meetings and fêtes, making use of the old national customs, such as the Easter Rod", which is somewhat similar to the old French custom of the "Innocents". On Easter Monday the young men of the villages go out armed with rods made of plaited willow wands and strike with them the girls they meet. The latter can buy back their liberty by offering them gaily painted eggs on which inscriptions are written c

else paper eggs, which were sold on that day for the benefit of the Red Cross.

The technical organization of the Truce is very simple. A Central Committee is formed, which meets in Prague. The committee is presided over by the President of the Republic and is composed of ministers, deputies, representatives of political parties, journalists, scientists, and, generally speaking, all the eminent men of the nation. Each village elects a local committee, composed of the mayor, local officials, the schoolmaster, intellectual workers and members of the local Red Cross chapter. Leaflets, pamphlets and other literature are furnished by the central office, if necessary in several languages. Each committee is provided with all necessary material for the preparation of articles and lectures, as well as posters, subscription blanks, collectors badges, and stamps to affix to theatre tickets and other entrance tickets. The collaboration of the daily and weekly

papers is obtained. The leaders of the various political parties invite the mayors to district conferences, where they explain the importance of the movement and ask for everyone's support. The campaign for peace is thus developed simultaneously everywhere, in small villages and in large

towns.

Experience has proved that the Truce of the Red Cross can be made a success. I am sure that other countries will readily grasp the deep significance of this idea of unity in neighbourly love. I am all the more hopeful of this in that the two central Red Cross organizations, the International Red Cross Committee in Geneva and the League of Red Cross Societies in Paris, at their 1921 and 1922 conferences, after having listened to the report of the originator of the idea, Dr Alice Masarykova, recommended all national Red Cross Societies to consider the institution of a Red Cross Truce.

We gave in the March number of The World's Health a sketch of the history and organization of the Canadian Red Cross. This article shows, as fully as space will permit, the lines along which the peacetime programme has been developed.

The basis for the commencement of peacetime work was found in the Proceedings of the Committee of Five, the Resolutions of the Conference of Medical and Public Health Experts (Cannes, April 1919) and the Proceedings of the First Meeting of the League of Red Cross Societies.

With these in mind, the Central Council made a thorough study of the Society's position for the purpose of determining how it might best continue its considerate service to disabled or partially disabled ex-soldiers; how it might develop its organization to be of the utmost service to departments of health and education; how it might carry on its

work in harmony with other associations in the same or related fields; in brief, how it might most effectively perform its part in extended service for humanity.

In order that it might enter upon its new service in cordial and intelligent co-operation with other nationally organized and voluntary bodies also engaged in the promotion of public health, the Society arranged for the formation of a committee to be called the Red Cross Advisory and Consultative Committee. This Committee was made up of representatives of the Central Executive of the Canadian Red Cross Society, Canadian Red Cross Provincial Divisions, Dominion Department of Public Health, St. John Ambulance Association, St. John Ambulance Brigade, Victorian Order of Nurses, Canadian Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis, Canadian National Council for

Combating Venereal Diseases, Canadian National Committee for Mental Hygiene, Canadian Public Health Association, Canadian Medical Association, Canadian National Association of Trained Nurses, Child Welfare Section of Canadian Public Health Association, Canadian Association of Nursing Education, Department of Soldiers' Civil Re-Establishment, and Provincial Departments of Public Health. The conferences and resolutions of this Committee were a valuable aid to the Society in developing its work.

Beyond the fact that organized activity in time of peace made the Society of all the more value in time of war the following lines of service commended themselves :

Continuance of solicitous care of the disabled and partially disabled soldiers.

Preparation for emergency disaster relief. The promotion of health by placing, through publications and addresses, reliable, acceptable health knowledge within the reach and understanding of all, and by encouraging the employment of public health nurses.

As a part of the health programme, the promotion of the Junior Red Cross.

The Canadian Red Cross endeavored to interpret faithfully the spirit of the League of Red Cross Societies and followed closely its recommendations.

The first step of a nation-wide character was the membership enrollment, a task by no means easy in view of the fact that the population of Canada is spread in a territory extending for over three thousand miles from east to west. Enrolment was made of some 168,100 members. The Junior membership for 1922 was 72,755-making a total of 240,805. In this work the National Office cooperated with all Provincial Divisions and prepared for them several different kinds of health and publicity material. Considerably more than a million copies were distributed. Extensive paid advertising also was carried in many of the Canadian papers. Besides awakening a large section of the public to the importance of matters of health, the enrolment gave the Society and its officers further useful experience in the ways and means of continuing to carry on the Crusade for Good

Health. It also enabled the Provincial Divisions to put themselves in closer touch with the

conditions and needs of the people of their respective areas.

The nine provincial Divisions of the Canadian Red Cross, from east to west, are as follows: Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia.

These Divisions carry on the work of the peacetime programme in cordial co-operation with the Provincial Governments and in direct contact with people. On account of varied conditions, occupations, and

needs, the lines

of Red Cross effort that the Provincial Divisions have

undertaken have been many and varied. They may be classified broadly under the heads of Membership, Assistance to Ex-Service Men, Nursing and Medical Services, Junior Red Cross, Emergency Disaster Relief, Publica

tions. The Canadian Red Cross, as a whole and through all its Provincial Divisions, has accepted as the first of its peacetime obligations the duty of rendering, within its sphere, such assistance as may be necessary to needy ex-soldiers and their families. Ever since the Great War there have been hospitals in Canada devoted to soldier patients who face either life-long disability or a long period of treatment. To them, kindly and sympathetic Red Cross visitors carry cheer and comfort in every way possible. There are Red Cross Entertainment Committees, Flower Committees, Christmas Cheer Committees, and many others. Wherever need is seen or the possibility of affording help in any