When the war broke out on June 5, 1967, in the Near East, the International Committee of the Red Cross had already taken precautions by delegating representatives to Cairo, Tel Aviv, Beyrouth, Damascus and Amman.

The legal status of members of resistance movements cannot be discussed but in the light of previous court rulings, some of which are very instructive within the scope of the present study. They have been set out below.

On the morning of September 12th, 1914, I presented myself at 3, rue de l'Athénée, the surprisingly modest headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Gustave Moynier, who was then unknown to me, one of the founders of this Genevese institution fifty years earlier, of which he had been President until 1910, said that he was also its door-keeper, because it was he who had the keys to the small, three roomed flat. It was there where the Committee's as yet by no means very considerable records were kept.

Some time ago, the International Committee of the Red Cross suggested to the Medico-Legal Commission of Monaco to study the important question of humane treatment due to persons deprived of their freedom for reasons unconnected with common penal law. It was a question of filling a gap in the form of a guide determining the principles aimed at regulating conditions of detention in a humane manner.

It is a pleasure for me, as Secretary-General of the League of Red Cross Societies, to write an article for the outstanding review produced by the International Committee. It is also a further opportunity to give fresh testimony to the cordial and harmonious co-operation between our two institutions, not that this needs any corroboration.

The August issue of the International Review has already mentioned the action undertaken by the ICRC in connection with the Geneva Protocol of June 17, 1925, and with reference to the war in Vietnam. This Protocol forbids the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases and of bacteriological methods of warfare. A reminder of the provisions may not be amiss.

The promotion of world peace, although of concern to the Red Cross, was for a long time outside the purview of its programme of action. However, after the First World War the International Red Cross, sharing the hopes of the nations, declared its intention to work thenceforth, not only in time of peace, but also for peace. Since that time, nearly all International Conferences of the Red Cross have adopted resolutions on the contribution which the Red Cross could make to this noble cause.

Like all other European countries with a historic and cultural tradition, Spain contributed to the birth and evolution of humanitarian law as applied to war. Its contribution, like that of every country, had certain special aspects striking a characteristic note in the composition as a whole and anticipating what were later to become generally applicable provisions.

It was with a feeling of exitement that, one day in February 1959, I complied with the request of the Leader of Education at the National Prison—Botsfengselet—in Oslo to make a speech on the Red Cross, accompanied by a film and followed by a question-hour, in connection with a course in social science for the prisoners.

I started by telling the audience that the Founder of the Red Cross, Henry Dunant, as a young man visited the prison in Geneva, where he read aloud to the prisoners and brought them human contact.

Last year the International Review published an article by Général-Major médecin E. Evrard on the legal protection of medical air transports in time of war. We now have pleasure in reproducing the text of a preliminary report submitted to the Vth Session of the Medico-Legal Commission of Monaco. Indeed, studies must be continued in this sphere in which the provisions of international law are at present inadequate. (Ed.)

Are the Geneva Conventions of 1949, which relate to international conflicts, also applicable in the case of an “armed conflict not of an international character”?

This year the Canadian Red Cross Society commemorates the twentieth anniversary of the birth of its national blood transfusion service.

It was in February, 1947 when the first Red Cross Depot was opened in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was the prototype of 16 similar depots that would be established throughout Canada in the next 15 years. The Canadian Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service became truly national in scope with the opening of a depot in Quebec City in 1961.

Thanks to donations received from various quarters, the International Committee of the Red Cross has been able to acquire a mobile X-ray unit driven by dry batteries.

In its Circular No. 463 of August 23, 1966, the International Committee of the Red Cross had the honour to invite the Central Committees of National Societies to send in the names of nurses and voluntary aids whom they judged qualified to receive the Florence Nightingale Medal. This invitation, which quoted Article 1 of the Regulations, was accompanied by questionnaires bearing various headings for the candidatures.

The Regulations of the Augusta Fund provide for the distribution of income from the Fund every fourth year on the occasion of the International Red Cross Conferences. As these Conferences do not take place at regular intervals, the International Committee of the Red Cross has informed the National Societies, in its Circular No. 429 of March 30, 1960, that such income would henceforth be distributed every fourth year, irrespective of the date on which the Conferences are held.

The ever more frequent use of medical helicopters and aircraft by military and civilian organizations of modern nations to give first-aid to the wounded and have them transported has also led the central bodies of various National Red Cross Societies to add the most up-to-date and fastest methods of air transport to the traditional forms of transportation.

The medical team installed at Amara in North Yemen worked at high pressure throughout May. Consultations averaged more than a hundred daily. The same sicknesses (amoeba, bilharzia, typhoid, scurvy, avitaminosis, etc.…) are repeatedly mentioned in each of the doctor-delegates' reports. An epidemic of malaria has been reported in the Amara area where it broke out after the rainy season in April, rainfall being exceptionally heavy this year. Dr. Pietro Duchini, doctor-delegate of the ICRC, had amongst other things to perform minor surgical operations, whose numbers were considerably increased as a result of military action. In the aid post set up by extremely rudimentary means he treated wounds of a more or less serious character caused by fire-arms, often complicated by open fractures, and carried out a large number of extractions of shrapnel. In spite of very insufficient conditions of asepsis, no septic complications took place in four months of daily surgical work.

We have the honour to inform you that the International Committee of the Red Cross gave official recognition on September 14, 1967, to the Red Cross of Mali.