From 27 November to 3 December 1970, the President of the ICRC, Mr. Marcel A. Naville, accompanied by Mr. Pierre Basset, Assistant Director, and Mr. Serge Nessi, Delegate-General for Latin America, was in Nicaragua for the Ninth Inter-American Red Cross Conference, the report on which is given below. On route to Managua, Mr. Naville stopped in Venezuela and Panama.

We have the honour to inform you that the International Committee of the Red Cross has officially recognized the Lesotho Red Cross Society with effect from 7 September 1971.

The new Society formally applied for recognition by the International Committee on 11 March 1971. Its request was supported by various documents including a copy of its Statutes and of the Act of 9 November 1967, a report on its activities and a letter containing a statement of adherence to the Statutes of the International Red Cross, received on 7 September 1971.

The term “material relief” covers the very considerable aid provided by various Societies to wounded and sick soldiers of the belligerent countries. It included medical supplies and equipment, clothing, blankets and foodstuffs.

The International Committee of the Red Cross had convened a consultative meeting of non-governmental organizations interested in its work for the reaffirmation and development of international humanitarian law.

The Neutral Commission appointed by the ICRC to decide on applications by Polish victims of pseudo-medical experiments in Nazi concentration camps during the Second War World met for the third time this year from 1 to 3 July 1971 at ICRC headquarters in Geneva. It consisted of Mr. W. Lenoir, President of the Neutral Commission and judge of the Geneva Court of Justice, Dr. S. Mutrux, assistant director of the Bel-Air psychiatric clinic of Geneva, and Dr. P. Magnenat, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and assistant at the Nestlé Hospital university clinic at Lausanne.

From 26 to 28 May 1971, the ICRC delegates for Eastern Africa, Mr. R. Weber and Mr. P. Gachoud, went to Burundi to visit five prisons there. They saw persons held for political reasons and offences and talked without witnesses with prisoners of their choice.

The delegates, in co-operation with the Burundi Red Cross, distributed toilet requisites and note-paper. They also handed over to the National Society mats and medicaments to be distributed at a later date.

“The stillness of the night was broken by groans, by stifled sighs of anguish and suffering. Heart-rending voices kept calling for help. Who could ever describe the agonies of that fearful night … There were few doctors, no nurses, no trained medical personnel. Dressings and the most essential medicaments were also lacking.” What Henry Dunant saw on the field of battle caused him to ask the question: “Would it not be possible, in time of peace and quiet, to form relief societies for the purpose of giving care to the wounded in war-time by zealous, devoted and thoroughly qualified volunteers?”.

On the occasion of the Conference of Red Cross Experts on the reaffirmation and development of international humanitarian law applicable in armed conflicts, held at The Hague, Mr. Marcel A. Naville, President of the International Committee, accompanied by Mr. R. Gallopin, member of the ICRC, and Mr. A. van Emden, Director-General of the Netherlands Red Cross, called on 3 March 1971 upon Mr. P. J. S. de Jong, Prime Minister of the Netherlands Government.

The International Review has already on several occasions given information about the school textbook, nearly a million copies of which have now been published by the ICRC. The article below contains a statement on the different editions at the end of August 1971.

In response to an invitation from the American National Red Cross, Mr. Marcel A. Naville, President of the ICRC, accompanied by senior ICRC officials, went to the United States from 17 to 24 April 1971.

Having expressed the wish to establish closer contacts with the Red Cross Society of China, the President of the ICRC was invited by that National Society to go to China in September. Mr. Naville, accompanied by the Presidential Attaché, Mr. Michel Barde, left Geneva for Peking on 13 September. He was welcomed in the Chinese capital by leaders of the Red Cross Society of China, Mr. Kuo King-go, Mr. Wang Min, Mr. Li Go-hua, Mr. Shang Shenggan, Mrs. Lian Si-yi and Mrs. Lian Mo.

Exchange of prisoners of war.—On 31 January 1971, the 37 Saudi and 24 South Yemeni prisoners of war captured during border incidents in November 1969 were repatriated under the auspices of the ICRC.

Two aircraft took the former prisoners, accompanied by ICRC delegates, from Riyadh and Aden to Cairo where the exchange took place.

In the October, November and December 1970 numbers, International Review published articles on the assistance provided to victims as soon as civil war had broken out in Jordan. An extensive action, undertaken by the Red Cross, became pòssible thanks to the generous aid supplied by many National Societies after the ICRC had launched on 24 September an appeal to their sense of solidarity. The action by the Red Cross co-ordination group in Jordan terminated on 10 December 1970.

On the occasion of their European trip, Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress of Japan visited the Geneva headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross on 10 October 1971. Her Majesty the Empress, who is honorary president of the Japanese Red Cross, had expressed the wish to call at the ICRC during her visit to Switzerland.

From 27 January to 25 February 1971 Dr. Roland Marti, chief medical officer of the ICRC, and Mr. Bernard Daniel, delegate, paid a series of visits to detention centres in Indonesia.

They went first to the island of Buru, in the Southern Moluccas, where political detainees are being held, grouped in thirteen agricultural units along the River Apu. They were able, for the moment, to see three of the units. They talked in private with detainees of their choice, and their reports have, in accordance with established practice, been transmitted to the detaining authorities.

On 14 June the ICRC Relief Service despatched by air 20 firstaid kits to the Sudan Red Crescent Society and 5 to the Togolese Red Cross.

On 28 June medical supplies of vitamins and antibiotics, quinine and other products to a value of nearly 5,000 Swiss francs left Geneva for Ecuador. The consignment is intended for prisons in that country following the last series of visits carried out by the ICRC.

Mr. Hans Bachmann's and Mr. Jacques Freymond's terms as Vice-Presidents of the International Committee having expired, in accordance with the rules of procedure, the March plenary meeting of the ICRC decided to extend them until the end of June. After that date Mr. Harald Huber, federal court judge, and Mr. Jean Pictet, Chairman of the ICRC Legal-Commission, would assume office as the new Vice-Presidents. However, Mr. Jacques Freymond, who was not present at the March meeting, declined the extension of his term in office, so that his place will be taken by Mr. Pictet with immediate effect.