In 1872 Henry Dunant, on a visit to London, read a paper on the work of the Red Cross. His first words were:—“Though I am known as the Founder of the Red Cross, and the originator of the Conventions of Geneva, it was an Englishwoman to whom all the honour of that Convention is due. What inspired me was the work of Miss Florence Nightingale…”

In our October and November issues we published detailed articles on the relief work undertaken by the Red Cross in Jordan. We stated that a new phase, begun on 1 November, would last for several weeks, and we underlined the scope and effectiveness of the action.

In 1966, we mentioned in these pages that, following the accession of the Republic of Korea to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, the original Convention of 1864 was no more than a venerable museum piece.

To-day, with the accession of Costa Rica to the 1949 version, the “Geneva Convention of 6 July 1906 for the amelioration of the condition of the wounded and sick in armies in the field” is no longer binding on any State. Thus, in its turn, it becomes a thing of the past, a glorious trophy like its predecessor.

In 1854 the English and the French were involved in a war which was the more distressing as epidemics increased the death rate in terrifying proportions. At Scutari, on the Asian bank of the Bosphorous, the Turks had given up to the English an artillery barracks with hospital attached. It was there, in that overcrowded general hospital where the cholera patients came pouring in, that Florence Nightingale and her nurses arrived from England on 5 November. The following three pages from Cecil Woodham-Smith's book suffice to describe the conditions she found there. They show what heroism, tenacity and organizing ability she had to call upon to remedy the situation.

At its plenary session on 14 May 1970, the International Committee of the Red Cross elected Mr. Victor H. Umbricht as a new member.

Mr. Umbricht was born at Untersiggenthal in the canton of Aargau in 1915. After studying at various universities he obtained a doctorate in international law. He was a member of the Tribunal of Baden and then, from 1941 to 1953, was in the Swiss diplomatic service. He subsequently became assistant director of operations at the World Bank, Washington, for Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. In 1957 he was appointed Director of the Federal Administration of Finances in Bern.

At the invitation of the German Red Cross in the Federal Republic of Germany, the President of the ICRC, Mr. Marcel A. Naville, together with the ICRC Delegate-General for Europe, Mr. Melchior Borsinger, went to Bonn on 14 November for a five-day visit. He there met Dr. Gustav Heinemann, President of the Republic, and several members of the Government.

Following the conflict which broke out on 14 July 1969 between Honduras and El Salvador, the delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross successfully intervened to arrange repatriation of prisoners of war and interned civilians detained by each of the Parties to the conflict. These operations were completed on 6 October 1969 when the last Honduran civilians detained in El Salvador were repatriated.

During its plenary session on 1 October 1970, the ICRC, through its President, expressed to its Delegate-General for the Far East, Mr. André Durand, on the occasion of his retiring from that office in order to assume other duties at central headquarters, its profound gratitude for his outstanding service in the Red Cross cause for nineteen years.

Mr. Naville pointed out that in 1962 the ICRC had awarded Mr. Durand its silver medal in grateful recognition of his dedicated co-operation. On the Committee's behalf, Mr. Naville reiterated its full appreciation.

As a result of the events of 10 and 11 January 1970 in Nigeria, with the cessation of the fighting, the ICRC at once took several emergency measures.

At its plenary session of 3 December 1969 the International Committee appointed Mr. Jacques Cheneviere, Mrs. Marguerite Gautier-van Berchem, Mr. Samuel A. Gonard and Mr. Fre"de"ric Siordet Honorary Members.

In its last issue, the International Review published an article on the assistance provided to victims of the civil war in. Jordan since it broke out. We gave some details of the development of the vast and swift relief action undertaken by the Red Cross, up to the end of September 1970 and which was rendered possible thanks to the generous aid from a great number of Red Cross, Red Crescent and Red Lion and Sun National Societies, to which the ICRC had appealed on 24 September. In order to give a more vivid picture of the growing and increasingly imperative undertaking, we shall set forth the more significant events as they succeeded each other during October, bringing our summary up to the end of that month.

It was in 1907, at the VIIIth International Conference of the Red Cross in London, that the Hungarian Red Cross proposed setting up a Nightingale fund “for an international commemorative medal intended for women who have distinguished themselves exceptionally in their nursing activities”. Its desire was to commemorate Florence Nightingale's devotion by a bronze medal engraved with the statuette of “The Lady with the Lamp” at St. Thomas' Hospital in London.

We know what work is carried out by the ICRC delegates in Jordan ; we know that, thanks to them and their intervention, as soon as it was possible the relief mission of the ICRC, aided by the National Societies, could be started and developed. One of the delegates in Amman during the civil war, Mr. Louis Jaquinet, relates below some incidents in the danger-fraught life of a delegate during a crisis.