The word “neuter” comes from the Latin ne-uter, which means, neither the one, nor the other. Neutrality is an essentially neutral notion. It qualifies above all the abstention of someone who remains outside a conflict who does not openly express an opinion of either side.

In international law, neutrality is the opposite of belligerency. It is the position adopted, in relation to two Powers at war, by a State not taking part in the struggle. The status of neutrality regulated by juridical rules and in particular by the Hague Conventions involves rights and duties. In short, it implies refraining from taking part officially, either directly or indirectly, in hostilities. In the first place, therefore, it is a concept of an essentially military character. However, as a result of a recent evolution in events and thought, some people tend to think that neutrality should also have effect in the economic sphere, in view of its importance today in the war potential of countries.

In conformity with the resolutions of 1863 and the Swiss policy of armed neutrality, our National Red Cross Society has from its very beginning considered support of the army medical service to be one of its primary tasks. First to assume this task was the Société de secours aux militaires et leurs familles, which was founded on July 17, 1866. Apart from training volunteer first-aid workers to tend the wounded and the sick, the Society also extended its help to the families of soldiers mobilized in war-time. It carried out its main social work during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71 and also rendered assistance to French troops interned in Switzerland. The Swiss Central Red Cross Society, which was founded on April 25, 1882, and replaced the Société de Secours, also planned to “promote the care of the sick in time of peace and of war”, at the same time considering it its duty to render “first-aid in the event of accident”.

Relief Mission.—Thanks to generous donations, mainly from National Red Cross Societies, the International Committee of the Red Cross has so far been able to continue to carry out its relief mission, the benefits of which it endeavours to bring to the greatest possible number of victims of the war in Vietnam. The latest donation it has received consists of £5,000 sent by the British Red Cross which entrusts the ICRC to use this amount for equal benefit to victims in North Vietnam, South Vietnam and the territory occupied by the NLF.

On the occasion of the Executive Committee meeting of the League of Red Cross Societies, the representatives of these Societies were the guests of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which had arranged an information session on its recent activities. The President, Mr. Samuel A. Gonard, first of all described the efforts which the ICRC had made and was still making in Vietnam to obtain fuller application of the Geneva Conventions and also to establish contact with all parties to the conflict with a possible view to easing tension and leading to measures favourable to a halt or at least an abatement of hostilities.

The Expenditure and Receipts Account for 1965 shows a deficit of Sw.fr. 843,643.30 for a total expenditure of Sw.fr. 5,138,598.75, whereas the deficit forecast for the same period amounted to Sw.fr. 1,061,500.—. The improvement on the estimates reflects the International Committee's unremitting efforts to ensure constant economy in administration. None the less, the scope of the tasks incumbent upon it and their continual recurrence as a result of fresh conflicts each year reveal the Committee's inadequate financial basis which consistently threatens the institution's very existence.

The XXth International Conference of the Red Cross in Vienna, in October 1965, was a landmark in our institution's history.

The Conference was of special importance to the ICRC as it advanced humanitarian law, of which the Committee is a promoter. It also adopted in no uncertain fashion the Red Cross principles, in the drafting of which the Committee took a major part.

Events in the course of the year under review laid a heavy responsibility on the ICRC and confronted it with large-scale practical tasks. In spring there was the crisis in the Dominican Republic, to the abatement of which the Committee's delegates contributed. Later there broke out the Indo-Pakistan conflict in which the Geneva Conventions had to be applied and implemented. As the months went by, the war in Vietnam was intensified, increasing the suffering which the ICRC endeavoured to alleviate in spite of the obstacles placed in its path.