“The First Steps” is the title of a new 16 mm colour film which the Press and Information Division of the ICRC has just produced on the work it has been carrying out for several months in Bangladesh with the co-operation of several National Societies. Filmed last January in Dacca, Chittagong, Mirzapur, Comilla and other places, it lasts for 28 minutes, and English, French, German, Spanish and Italian versions may be ordered from the ICRC.

Some months ago the Henry Dunant Institute, in co-operation with Messrs Sandoz S.A., undertook an enquiry into Health and Medicine in the 1980's in the developed countries. Following the Delphi method, it has so far given some interesting results.

From the replies of sixty-three experts in eighteen countries to two successive questionnaires, it is apparent, in the first place, that the concept of health will extend over the next two decades to cover social and mental conditions which are not at present considered health problems.

Maintaining contact between captives and their families; seeking persons who are missing; reuniting families dispersed by events (international conflicts, civil wars, internal disturbances)—such are the main duties of the ICRC Central Tracing Agency in Geneva, where it maintains its principal working instrument, a card-index system of more than 45 million entries. The Agency also sets up, when circumstances require, offices which act as its correspondents in other countries.

Under the 1955 Agreements, the duties laid upon the International Tracing Service (ITS), at Arolsen, the management of which was entrusted to the International Committee, were defined.

Far from diminishing over the years, the volume of work involved is still very considerable, as will be seen from the information given below:

In 1971, ITS received 127,872 requests, which was 4,543 more than it had received the year before. There was a considerable change in the categories of requests. For the first time, the number of requests for certificates of detention and residence, connected with the law on compensation which in 1953 came into effect in the Federal Republic of Germany, was no longer the largest (48,800 in 1971 as against 71,169 in 1970). There was a corresponding drop in the number of requests for death certificates (4,747 as against 7,173 in 1970) and in the number of requests for documents concerning cases of illness (4,958 as against 6,270 in 1970). On the other hand, the category relating to requests for the preparation of books in memory of victims of deportation, requests submitted by record services, requests from attorneys-general, and requests for information with a view to obtaining annuities and pensions, amounted to 57,914 units, which was more than double the figure for the preceding year. There were 1,315 requests for statistical and historical information, 749 for photocopies, and 708 sundry requests.

The International Review has made frequent reference—and more specifically in last October's issue—to the generous donations of foodstuffs made by the European Economic Community (EEC), through the ICRC, to the victims of armed conflicts and natural disasters.