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The Neutrality of Switzerland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2017

Extract

It has been finely said of Switzerland that while the present war has demonstrated in a sinister manner Swiss dependence upon its powerful neighbors for fuel and food, and thus for its very existence, nevertheless neither these neighbors nor the world at large could for a moment spare the example of heroism and devotion so constantly and consistently set by the Swiss nation in its political and social life. This quality of devotion has been illustrated during the war not alone by the struggles unavoidable in the maintenance of neutrality, but also in the far-reaching activities of the International Red Cross at Geneva. Indeed, the work accomplished through the agencies of this wonderful organization in the internment and care of wounded soldiers and their repatriation where permissible under belligerent agreement, in the repatriation of civilians driven from occupied territory, the transmission of mail to prisoners, and the discovery of vast numbers of the missing, constitute one of the most striking chapters in the war’s history.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1919 

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References

1 Authorities: in La Suisse Pindant La Guerre. Professor Max Thurman, of Fribourg, has given an excellent outline of Red Cross and economic features; La Suisse Neutre et Vigilante collects all official documents of permanent utility and will prove invaluable as a work of reference: the Federal Council’s reports to Parliament (Rapports du Conseil Fédéral a l’Assemblée Fédérale sur les mesures prises par lui en vertu de l’arrêté fédéral du 3 août 1914), of which eleven have been issued, are indispensable; some fifteen documents have been translated and published by the United States Naval War College in its International Law Topics for 1916 and its International Law Documents for 1917 under the care of Professor George Grafton Wilson of Harvard University.