As announced in our February issue, the second session of the Diplomatic Conference on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law Applicable in Armed Conflicts opened at the International Conference Centre, Geneva, on 3 February 1975. The Conference, which is chaired by Mr. Pierre Graber, President of the Swiss Confederation, is merely the continuance of the first session, held in Geneva from 20 February to 29 March 1974, which was also chaired by Mr. Graber. At the opening of the twenty-third plenary meeting, after greeting the delegates, the Chairman said that the task awaiting the Conference was arduous indeed. The hopes which the international community had placed in the Conference's work must not be disappointed, he said, and he emphasized the unanimous desire of the Conference Bureau for decisive progress.

Last November we reproduced a chapter of a book written by Jacques Moreillon, an ICRC delegate-general, and published by the Henry Dunant Institute. We now quote another chapter of the same book. As usual, the views expressed are those of the author alone. (Ed.)

At the beginning of this month, the ICRC sent to some Governments and all National Societies a memorandum describing the ICRC's work in Cyprus since December 1974. We give below some extracts:

Introduction

The instability which still prevails in Cyprus, indicated in particular by major population shifts, has resulted in a great many humanitarian problems, demanding protection, medical and material assistance, and action by the Tracing Agency. The ICRC has therefore maintained in Cyprus a delegation of some forty persons, including ten delegates, four specialists in Agency problems, three relief supply delegates, two doctors nd five mobile medical teams provided by National Red Cross Societies.

The delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross who have been in Addis Ababa for several weeks have not yet been authorized to go to Asmara. To the ICRC's offers to provide the victims of the conflict in Eritrea with assistance and protection, the Ethiopian Minister for Foreign Affairs has replied that the Government has the situation in hand and that there is no emergency. The ICRC is still prepared to play its traditional humanitarian role on behalf of the victims of the present conflict: the wounded and the sick, prisoners, and the civilian population.

In response to an invitation, the President of the Red Cross of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam paid a visit to the ICRC on 19 March. He was received by Mr. Roger Gallopin, President of the Executive Board, and Mr. Jean-Pierre Hocké, Director of the Department of Operations. Afterwards, he visited the League of Red Cross Societies where he was welcomed by Mr. Henrik Beer, Secretary General.

A man whose intelligence and kindliness left a living mark on the ICRC, even though his activities in the institution ceased some thirty years ago, passed away in Geneva on 5 March 1975.

Henri Reverdin was appointed a member of the editorial staff of the Revue internationale de la Croix-Rouge in 1926, and in 1943 he became Editor. Two years later he left to devote himself entirely to university teaching, and in the ICRC publication at that time we find the following tribute: “The Review stands as a token of his character, intellectual honesty and profound erudition”. While he was in charge of the Review, he also contributed a number of outstanding articles on humanitarian events in the world, essays and book reviews.