From the outset, the central committees of the Societies for Relief to Military Wounded developed the habit of corresponding, either direct or through the International Committee. Was not the originality of the institution precisely that community of interests which united National Societies irrespective of frontiers?

Most of the founders of the earliest relief societies had taken part in the 1863 Geneva Conference which initiated the Red Cross movement. They knew each other personally and naturally kept in touch.

The fourth and last session of the Diplomatic Conference on the Reaffirmation and Development of International Humanitarian Law applicable in Armed Conflicts has just opened. The Conference is considering two Protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949. The first widens the scope of humanitarian law applicable in international armed conflicts, in particular by giving additional protection to civilians even when they are not in the enemy's power, and by extending to civilian medical personnel the protection which until now had been granted only to military medical personnel. The second Protocol develops the law applicable in non-international armed conflicts, which until now was restricted to a few principles contained in common article 3 of the four Conventions of 1949.

The Assembly of the International Committee of the Red Cross met in Basle on 2 and 3 June.

The President of the ICRC, Mr. Alexandre Hay, attended the centenary commemorations of two National Red Cross Societies during the month of May.

The ICRC Medical Division organized a seminar from 3 to 5 May at Cartigny, near Geneva, for about 50 Swiss doctors who had carried out medical missions abroad. Those taking part in the meetings included ICRC staff, members of the Swiss Red Cross and of the Swiss Disaster Relief Corps. Two Danish doctors were also invited.

In a letter dated 27 May 1977, Mr. Mierre Micheli, member of the International Committee of the Red Cross, tendered his resignation from the ICRC for health reasons, with effect from 1 June.

On the occasion of the meeting of the Standing Commission of the Red Cross, held in Geneva at the beginning of May, Mr Roger Gallopin, former President of the ICRC Executive Board, received the Medal of Honour of the Australian Red Cross from Sir Geoffrey Newman-Morris, President of the Society.

From 2 to 9 May, four delegates and a doctor of the ICRC made a new series of visits to places of detention in Rhodesia. They went to eight prisons, where they saw a total of 817 persons detained under the Emergency Regulations. The previous ICRC mission took place in November 1976.