The subject I have been asked to discuss is one which has been of great concern to the nursing profession in the United States for many years, but this interest has been accentuated by our recognition of the vulnerability of every part of the world in modern warfare. The nurse has traditionally been the personification of those who care for the sick, and the helpless. Her very presence gives the patients a feeling of security and comfort. The public, the physicians, and the patients expect nurses to have an important role in national defense. Therefore, nurses must be prepared and willing to carry out their responsibilities effectively.

Before telling you what we are planning to do to prepare nurses to function adequately in national defense, it will be necessary to review the milieu in which we work as each country has its own framework in which activities are carried out and, therefore, the pattern of action may not be the same for every country. Further, I recognize that there are countries represented here that have had much more experience with the problems inherent in planning for national defense than we have in our country.

As is known, the Florence Nightingale Medal is awarded every two years by the International Committee of the Red Cross, after being proposed by the National Societies to honour nurses and voluntary aids who by their selflessness, devotion to the principles of the Red Cross and perseverance have given proof of their high sense of duty towards others.

From the very beginning, the Red Cross has been closely linked, with doctors and with all whose task it is to heal, the finest of vocations.

The Red Cross was in fact created a hundred years ago to provide against deficiencies in the Army Medical Services. This was an essentially medical factor which has continued to exist in every facet of Red Cross work, even when this work has exceeded its bounds and extended not only to the various victims of conflicts, but also in time of peace to life's victims—the sick.

Both the Red Cross and doctors have the same aim: to struggle against suffering and death. There can therefore never be too close co-operation between them. Without doctors the Red Cross would be nothing. The Red Cross, for its part, has obtained bases for doctors rendering their action possible in time of war and which are precisely contained in the Geneva Conventions.

The celebration of the Centenary of the Red Cross brought to the fore not only new aspects of the Red Cross ideal and action on the threshold to the second centenary of its existence, but also the men who played a decisive role in its history. Moreover, appropriate tribute was paid to those who are today in charge of the future of the Red Cross and who, in these troubled times, each day assume new and heavy responsibilities.

On learning of the proposal that I should speak here on the occasion of the Red Cross Centenary, I relived the exalted hours in Prague during the discussion of the Declaration of Red Cross Principles. I clearly remembered the inspired words during the debate and the competence of an understanding Chairman, Mr. Léopold Boissier. It was delightful to remember General Gruenther (USA) and Mr. Miterev (USSR) in happy handshake as they jointly expressed their agreement to the final draft which we all acclaimed. The Declaration, by the way, provides among other things that the Red Cross “ promotes mutual understanding, friendship, co-operation and lasting peace amongst all peoples.”

It was through a telegram sent to it on October 10, 1963 by Mr. Gunnar Jahn, President of the Nobel Committee of the Norwegian Parliament and published by the International Review in a previous number, that the International Committee learnt that it had been chosen, together with the League of Red Cross Societies, for the award of the Nobel Peace Prize for 1963. This was a great distinction which had for these two international institutions a special significance in the year of the Centenary of the founding of the universal movement of the Red Cross.

Some one hundred and thirty collections, belonging to official bodies or National Red Cross Societies, but mostly to private collectors, figured in the philatelic section, organized as part of the International Exhibition of the Red Cross.

This was the first occasion on which has been seen such an important display of Red Cross stamps. Apart from many collections from nearly all the European countries, from East and West, others had been sent from America, Iceland, New Zealand and Australia. Nearly eleven hundred frames were necessary to exhibit the large numbers of album sheets and their valuable contents: some two hundred thousand stamps and philatelic items connected with the Red Cross in one way or another.

We have pleasure in publishing the text of the lecture which Mr. F. Siordet, member of the ICRC and President of the Centenary Commission of the Red Cross in Switzerland, gave in August 1963 at the University of Geneva. During the next few months two further talks will appear, one by Mrs. S. Gabru, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Governors of the League, and a member of the Ethiopian Red Cross, and the other by Mrs. G. Pecson, Chairman of the Philippine Red Cross—relating to the Red Cross, its tasks and principles. One should here briefly recall in what circumstances these lectures took place.

The Centenary of the Red Cross of Baden-Württemberg was celebrated in 1963 by a number of events of which we will be reading an account below which we owe its Secretary-General. We would, however, like to refer to the historical background of a hundred years ago in relation to the recent celebrations in Stuttgart. The origin of the oldest Society of Aid to Military Wounded and Sick, founded in 1863, should in fact be recalled. The destinies of Württentberg were at that time in the royal hands of Wilhelm I, who agreed to send representatives to the International Conference convened in Geneva in October 1863. These were the Reverend Christoph-Ulrich Hahn, delegate of the Minister for War, accompanied by Dr. Wagner. For discussion and adoption was a “draft agreement” of the Committee of Five which was to be the basis of the Convention signed in Geneva a year later.

Just as the tree obtains nourishment at its roots, so we come to draw strength and inspiration at the very source of a noble idea, where the Red Cross was born and where it has grown.

Delegates of 90 Societies, representing 157 million members, have flocked here from all parts of the world to celebrate and pay tribute to one hundred years of service and unlimited devotion to the welfare of mankind.

This commemoration is a suitable vantage-point from which to review the road which has been travelled in the course of a century by a great movement and also to look ahead in order to study the future, its prospects and its limitations.

However important the improvements introduced into the First Geneva Convention by the various revisions, the essentials were already contained in the 1864 original.

The International Review has already published several studies on the history of humanitarian ideas. It was necessary to return to the origins and to mark the milestones in successive civilizations in the search for more humanity in the relations between individuals and nations.

The International Review has already published several accounts of tasks undertaken in the Yemen by the ICRC. The following information concerns the hospital which has been set up in the desert.

After several months of relative calm, a renewal of fighting has been reported in North East Yemen, a region in which is located the field hospital established by the International Committee of the Red Cross last November.

Only too aware of the distress throughout almost the whole of the Yemen as a result of the interminable conflict involving the Republican Government and the tribes which have remained loyal to the Imam El Badr, the ICRC has continued and even intensified its relief action.

The presence of a delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross continues to be of the greatest usefulness for the Greek and Turkish communities. No day passes without it being called upon to solve difficult humanitarian problems arising from the events.