The Red Cross was born over a hundred years ago on the field of battle. Aid to the wounded was the first mission it undertook. From the outset it thus restricted the scope of its ambition. By its desire to achieve that objective before anything else, the International Committee of the Red Cross acted with wisdom. So long as its work had not attained a certain degree of importance, so long as it was not universally recognized, the Committee decided its mission should be kept within certain limits and not get out of hand. The International Committee certainly had no desire thereby to justify war as a necessary evil. Its aim was essentially to combat war by limiting the distress it caused, for although its supreme objective was to ensure peace in the world, the Red Cross could not itself, with the forces at its command, have any illusions that it could stem the tide of war. It therefore endeavoured first and foremost to attenuate its harmful effects. As Louis Appia, one of the Red Cross founders, said, “Let us declare aloud our keen regret, our grief, at not being able to do more; let us protest against the great collective iniquity known as war, which is but one of the forms of evil in the world”.

It is foolish for anyone to seek to be wise in isolation.

In a world which is said to be given over increasingly to violence, ambition and strife—and to all that flows therefrom—we ask ourselves “What is the Red Cross?”

Should we visualize the Geneva Conventions as some verdant island-sanctuary that is preserved in the way that natural riches or cultural assets are preserved? One is put in mind of show-cases in which precious curios are displayed, with a “Do not touch” sign.

Following the conflict which broke out on 14 July 1969 between Honduras and El Salvador, the delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross successfully intervened to arrange repatriation of prisoners of war and interned civilians detained by each of the Parties to the conflict. These operations were completed on 6 October 1969 when the last Honduran civilians detained in El Salvador were repatriated.

On the invitation of the Polish Red Cross, the President of the ICRC left Geneva on 25 May for Warsaw on a five day official visit to Poland. Mr. Marcel A. Naville was accompanied by Mr. Melchior Borsinger, Delegate General for Europe and Miss Paulette Tombet, Head of the Central Tracing Agency.

In order to make better known throughout the world the humanitarian principles of the Red Cross, the ICRC has published a school textbook, “The Red Cross and My Country”, and its complement the “Teacher's Manual”. These are for distribution in schools in Africa and in Asia x. In addition, for the armed forces, it has published the “Soldier's Manual”. The first two of these three books educate schoolchildren, by means of short illustrated texts, in the fundamental humanitarian principles, whilst the “Soldier's Manual” concentrates on the essential provisions of the Geneva Conventions.