From September 1973 to March 1974, more than 250,000 persons have been moved from one side of the Asian sub-continent to the other in a vast operation involving the extensive co-operation of the ICRC. It was possible for this repatriation operation to be carried out only through the positive stand adopted by the three countries concerned and the co-operation shown by Switzerland, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the ICRC. Since the end of the Second World War, this is the most extensive repatriation operation undertaken by the ICRC, and its sheer size compels us to give in the pages that follow a summarized account of what has been accomplished. The relief efforts, though of considerable magnitude, undertaken by the ICRC since 1971 in support of prisoners, internees and civilians in the Asian sub-continent, will not be touched upon here, as they have been mentioned on several occasions in past issues of the International Review.

Last February we devoted an article to a book by Jacques Moreillon, ICRC delegate-general, which had been published by the Henry Dunant Institute. We give below an English version of one chapter (translated by us) of the book which, we would state, was submitted as a thesis to the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, under the sole responsibility of the author.

We publish below the text of a circular which the ICRC sent on 17 May 1974 to all governments and national liberation movements which were invited to the recent Diplomatic Conference in Geneva.

From 4 to 9 November 1974, a group of army officers attended at ICRC headquarters a study course on the Geneva Conventions and on the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The purpose of the course was to train officers with the object of entrusting them later on with the task of disseminating knowledge of the Geneva Conventions among members of the armed forces in their own country.

The XXIInd International Conference of the Red Cross, at Teheran last November, unanimously adopted Resolution No. XII calling upon governments and National Societies to intensify their efforts to disseminate the Geneva Conventions. It also requested the ICRC to support such efforts, inter alia by preparing information material and by advising National Societies in their plans for the dissemination of the Conventions and Red Cross principles. Consequently, the ICRC is now putting forward a teaching plan for secondary schools. The plan is based on the experience of the Austrian Red Cross, and we reproduce it hereunder.

At the request of the Israel and Syrian Governments, the ICRC, on 1 and 6 June 1974, repatriated wounded and able-bodied prisoners of war of both countries. The Swiss Government made three aircraft available for the operations.

On 21 January 1974, the International Committee of the Red Cross issued the following appeal to the 135 States parties to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949:

On the resumption of hostilities in the Middle East, the ICRC renewed its offer of services to the States concerned, with a view to the discharge of all the duties assigned it under the four Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949. In so far as permitted by the competent authorities, it has been able to acquit itself of part of its mandate: several thousand prisoners of war have been visited and repatriated; casualties have been cared for; and civilian victims have been given assistance.

On the occasion of his visit to Switzerland, H.E. Mr. Moktar Ould Daddah, President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, called at the headquarters of the ICRC on 19 February 1974.

It was with deep regret that the International Committee learned of the death of Mr. Carl J. Burckhardt on 3 March 1974. When he was appointed a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1933, Carl Burckhardt tirelessly worked with Max Huber, another eminent member and a former President of the ICRC. From November 1939, he devoted himself fully to ICRC activities and gave all his time and energy during the whole of the Second World War to the manifold tasks that had to be carried out.

We have the honour to inform you that the International Committee of the Red Cross, on 10 October 1974, officially recognized The Gambia Red Cross Society.

The new Society was constituted on 1 October 1966 and formally applied for recognition by the International Committee on 18 April 1974. Its request was supported by various documents including its Statutes, the Act of the Republic of the Gambia recognizing The Gambia Red Cross as a National Society auxiliary to the public authorities, and a report on the Society's activities.

The Conference of Government Experts on Weapons which may cause Unnecessary Suffering or have Indiscriminate Effects opened on Tuesday, 24 September, at Lucerne, under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The Conference, attended by more than 150 experts from some 50 countries, will continue until 18 October.

The study of the use of the weapons in question had already been the subject of a preliminary meeting in Geneva, in the context of work directed towards the further development of international humanitarian law.

On 31 July an ICRC delegate and a doctor-delegate visited, on the Ilha das Galinhas, 33 members of the PAIGC (African Party for the Independance of Guinea and Cape Verde) to whom the Portuguese Government had granted prisoner-of-war status. The following day, the delegates went to see a sick prisoner being treated at the hospital in Bissau.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has been informed by the Federal Political Department, Berne, that the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam, in a letter dated 31 October 1973 and received on 3 December, notified the Swiss Government of its accession to the four Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, to which it made some reservations.

ICRC action in Cyprus has developed considerably since the end of the second phase of hostilities, as new human problems have arisen.

At the end of September, the ICRC delegation consisted of 47 persons—including 14 delegates, 6 medical delegates and 8 Agency delegates. Their work had increased considerably, in providing protection and assistance to prisoners and to the civilian population.

In 1965, we announced Mr. Jean Pictet's appointment as reader in international humanitarian law, and added that the University of Geneva was one of the first seats of higher learning to include that subject in its programme.