The International Red Cross

Abstract

the eve of the XVIIIth International Red Cross Conference, being held in Toronto between the 26th of July and the 7th August 1952, it may not be superfluous to recall the history and legal status of a body which, although its emblem1 is as familiar as their national flag to people of all lands, is often better known for its countless and widely differing local welfare programmes than for its international scope. Yet the idea which gave rise to the present Red Cross movement was the result of an experience of battle between soldiers of many nationalities and from the very beginning aimed at alleviating human suffering on a supra-national level. For centuries the care of war-casualties had been left to religious communities or to rudimentary army medical services which were generally inadequate to deal with the aftermath of any but the smallest skirmishes. Not until the outbreak of the Crimean war, when Florence Nightingale on the British side and the Grand Duchess Helena Pavlovna on the Russian side were pioneers in establishing regular nursing services behind the lines, was any organised effort made to give the wounded medical attention. The vision of expanding these services to include all armies, by setting up in every country a voluntary aid society recognised and protected by the belligerent powers, was born five years later in the mind of Jean Henry Dunant, a young Swiss banker travelling in June 1859 through Lombardy where the united forces of Napoleon III and Victor Emmanuel of Sardinia were campaigning against the Austrian army led by Francis Joseph. Born on Jtme 8, 4B28 at Geneva of an old family, Henry Dunant had led a life of peaceful prosperity. Then, one early summer, intent on reaching Napoleon III in the hope of obtaining from the victorious emperor certain concessions his colonial authorities were unwilling to grant to a Swiss company in Algeria, he accidentally witnessed the battle of Solferino. In military and political history its date, June 24, 1859, marks the opening of the modern era of warfare. Owing to faulty intelligence, the encounter took place unexpectedly at dawn, finding most of the