The concept that man must be protected against the ills of war is not a recent one. It may be likened to a clear spring gushing out from time immemorial, increasing gradually in volume as it surges forth until its swollen waters are borne down upon us today. The sum of efforts that idea has aroused has grown, parallel to the rise of civilization with which it is indissolubly linked.

One hundred and fifty years ago, on June 16, 1824, Constance Teichmann was born in Antwerp. Hei father was governor of the Province of Antwerp. Her mother was very active in social work: she founded a society to provide for needy widows, and an association of Christian mothers; she helped to estabJish nursery schools, Sunday schools and schools of lacemaking, and she set up an orphanage for girls.

The offer of services of the International Committee of the Red Cross to the Ethiopian authorities when trouble broke out in Asmara at the end of January, confirmed by a cable sent by the President of the ICRC Executive Board on 9 February to the Head of the Provisional Military Government, is still being considered in Addis Ababa.

On 17 February 1975, the President of the ICRC Executive Board, Mr. Roger Gallopin, met the American Secretary of State, Mr. Henry Kissinger, while the latter was on a visit to Geneva. The talks centred on the ICRC's humanitarian work throughout the world. The Secretary of State expressed the United States Government's appreciation of the tasks accomplished by the ICRC and, in particular, its efforts to promote international humanitarian law.

A Catalogue of Publications (1864–1975) has just been issued by the ICRC. This is a 40-page booklet listing titles of publications issued by the ICRC in the course of over a hundred years and which are not out of print; a number of works printed by other publishers have also been included. Titles are classified under the following headings: History of the Red Cross—Principles—Organization—Development of Humanitarian Law—Dissemination of the Conventions—General Information—ICRC Activities. Most of the titles listed have been issued in English, French and Spanish and some of them in other languages, mainly Arabic and German.

The new radio station of the International Committee of the Red Cross is installed in a small building in the countryside at Versoix, some 10 kilometers from Geneva, in a field from which rise four lofty antennas.

The station was inaugurated on 4 December 1974 with a direct conversation between Mr. Eric Martin, President of the ICRC, and Mr. Walter Bargatzky, President of the German Red Cross in the Federal Republic of Germany, who was inaugurating his Society's radio station at the same time.