The International Red Cross held its meeting in Istanbul from 6 to 13 September 1969. No less than 610 delegates, representing 77 States and 83 National Societies of the Red Cross, Red Crescent and Red Lion and Sun, as well as 51 observers, gathered in the fine new Culture Palace. Generously welcomed by the country's high authorities and organized by the Turkish Red Crescent with the assistance of the international institutions of the Red Cross, the XXIst Conference was presided over by Mr. Riza Ceçrel, President of the Turkish Red Crescent. He asked Lady Limerick, Chairman of the Standing Commission, to assume the actual direction of most of the proceedings. Both acquitted themselves of their delicate task with distinction.

The XXIst International Conference of the Red Cross,

having received the report of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the League of Red Cross Societies on the action taken on the Resolutions of the XXth International Conference of the Red Cross (Vienna, 1965),

accepts this report,

thanks the International Committee and the League for having submitted it.

Reuniting of Families.—An important humanitarian operation took place under the auspices of the International Committee on 8 October 1969 at El Qantara on the Suez Canal. This was the 35th reunion of families whose members had been separated since the war in June 1967.

In our May 1969 issue we mentioned that 123 States were parties to the Geneva Conventions of 1949. The International Committee of the Red Cross has since been informed by the Swiss Federal Political Department in Berne of the accession of two more States to those Conventions.

Twenty-five years after the second World War, the International Committee of the Red Cross is still dealing with claims for compensation from people living in certain Central European countries who were victims of pseudo-medical experiments in German concentration camps.

In accordance with the decision reached by the ICRC, the medical mission in North Yemen has come to a close. Although the needs of the population are still considerable in this region, the ICRC has found itself obliged to put an end to its action, already very much reduced since the beginning of the year, as local conditions no longer enable the safety of the teams on the ground to be assured.