Mrs Diallo went recently to Africa at the request of the ICRC for which she drew up a report, which it gives us pleasure to publish, in view of the interest of the Red Cross in demonstrating that the profound idea which inspired it, the idea of respect for human dignity and of unselfish help for those who suffer, is an inseparable part of man's heritage.

In previous numbers, International Review published several news items about the field hospital set up by the ICRC in Beirut. The article printed below, written in July 1976, gives an idea of the serious tasks carried out, quite often under the most difficult conditions, by the men and women who, under the sign of the red cross, seek to bring relief to the victims.

After taking part in recent visits to places of detention in South Africa and Rhodesia, Mr. F. Schmidt, ICRC delegate general for Africa, visited Tanzania, Benin, Togo and Angola in May and June.

The ICRC Visitors Service is always quite busy and the following figures give some idea of the volume of its activities. During the first six months of 1976, the Service received nearly 2,100 persons, some singly and some in groups. The visitors included more than 500 members of National Societies from 37 countries: Algeria, Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Denmark, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Mauritania, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Somalia, Spain, Surinam, Sweden, Switzerland, USSR, United Kingdom, United States and Uruguay.

The ICRC has just published four new colour posters illustrating the application of the Geneva Conventions. The first shows the Red Crescent delivering relief supplies in the desert; the second shows a tracing service office in a country at war; the third shows people alighting from an ICRC aircraft to join their families, thanks to Red Cross intervention; the fourth illustrates ICRC assistance to prisoners. The captions are: To act throughout the world; To search for the missing; To reunite families; To protect prisoners.

Each year the International Committee publishes an account of its work during the previous year. But this year, the Annual Report for 1975 appears in a completely new form: though there are only 71 pages, the layout is different, and there are more illustrations.