We have pleasure in publishing the text of the lecture which Mr. F. Siordet, member of the ICRC and President of the Centenary Commission of the Red Cross in Switzerland, gave in August 1963 at the University of Geneva. During the next few months two further talks will appear, one by Mrs. S. Gabru, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Governors of the League, and a member of the Ethiopian Red Cross, and the other by Mrs. G. Pecson, Chairman of the Philippine Red Cross—relating to the Red Cross, its tasks and principles. One should here briefly recall in what circumstances these lectures took place.