LEAGUE OF RED CROSS SOCIETIES.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17461, 23 May 1922, Page 7

LEAGUE OF RED CROSS SOCIETIES.

MEETING IN GENEVA. NEW ZEALAND'S DELEGATES. (speciailt written fob "the press.") (By Mrs Juljan Grande.) GENEVA, March 31. All this week the meetings of the second Council of the League of Red Cross Societies have been going on quietly in Geneva. More than 40 countries, including New Zealand, are members League, and thirty-one of them sent delegates. Great Britain was represented by Sir Arthur Stanley, Sir Napier Burnett, and two other delegates; Australia by Lady Robinson; New Zealand by Dr. Colquhoun, of Dunodin, formerly Professor at the School of Medicine, and by Miss Sybil Nathan, of Wellington; while tho South African and Canadian Red Cross Societies were unrepresented. What I think people in general do not realise is that the aims of the League of Red Cross Societies and those ot tne Rod Cross are quite distinct. The League aims mainly at the diffusion oi knowledge of the principles of public health and hygiene, at the reduction of infant mortality, and at the prevention of epidemics and infectious and contagious diseases in general. In its work in schools it is much helped by what is known as the Junior Red Cross, but as a rule it is in what we should consider backward, undeveloped countries, such as Poland and Yugo-Slavia, that it finds its best field for work. In many other countries, in New Zealand, for instance, as Dr. Colquhoun and Miss Nathan both teJl_mo, the Government, the Plunket organisation, and other societies are already doing what the League of Red Cross Societies aims at doing, and-overlapping must,'of course, be avoided, and, indeed, would not he tolerated. The League ofc Red Cross Societies, therefore, whoso meetings . have been diligently attended by our two New Zealand delegates, has nothing to do with the work with which the name of the Red Cross is usually associated. It has ho connexion with stretcherbearers, ambulances, artificial limbs, or the nursing of wounded soldiers: its work is preventive. New Zealand, as Dr. Colquhoun reminds me, has the lowest infant mortality rate in the world—4o.6 per 1000 on an average, taking the whole Dominion, I understand. It, therefore, can safely be left to take care of itself. But how much need of hygiene instruction there is in some parts of the world is clear from the fact that in certain departments of France, particularly the HautesAlpes"(Daupniny, which I myself know because of having, climbed there formerly, and which is a wirt where goitre and consequently cretinism are prevalent), the infant mortality rate before the war was per 1000, and the average rate in 1917 for all France was 123 per 1000. A few other, figures are interesting:—

In 1920, England and Wales had an infant mortality rate of 155 per 10Gl>. In 1920, Norway had an infant mortality rate of 62 per 1000. In 1920, Sweden had an infant mortality rate.of 66 per 1000. In 1919, Switzerland had an infant mortality rate of 83 per 1000. In 1920, Denmark had an infant mortality rate of 90 per 1000. r In 1913, Poland had an infant mortality rate of 159 per 1000. . In 1918, Poland. hadj an infant mortality ;rate of 185 per 1000: Bombay, however, has a rate of 630 per 1000, Canada apparently a very variable rate, in some places as little as 52, in others as much as 214 per 1000. Christiania has a rate only a little higher than what Dunedin reports now—33 per 1000 as compared with Dunedin'e 30.8. The League of Red Cross Societies was founded, after the armistice, in the hope of utilising the vast Red Cross organisations in all civilised countries, organisations ready to nand and organisations which it seemed a pity not to keep together. Germany, owing to France's objections, I understand, has not yet been a member of; this League, but now is free to join, if she will. Austria is a member. At first the League's founders thought that it would be ideal to have their headquarters in Geneva, in a neutral country, situated in the heart of Europe, and in a town a citizen of which, Henri Dunant, organised in 1859, after the" battle of Soiferino, in Northern Italy, an ambulance service for the relief of the thousands of wounded men, whom he himself saw and wfiose sufferings horrified him. This amDulance service was the origin of the Ked Cross. Dunant was born in 1828.

Towns, however, abide their little While in this world and have their day, and Geneva, I cannot but think, is one of those towns which has had its day. An aggregation of human beings —whether lake-dweliers living on piles, or primitive men living in a hamlet or m a village, or inhabitants of an "oppidum," as Julius Caesar called Geneva in his "Commentaries,'* or of a town, or of a "cite/' as Geneva calls itself —must have existed here, as the confluence of the river Rhone with a large lake, from time immemorial. "Cite," however, is a high-sounding term for the town of 120,000, including about one-third foreigners, which is contemporary Geneva. Ido not wish to say that I think Geneva will vanish from the face of the world, but I do mean that it will have to continue -to do what # it is; already doing—to live upon its past, which is,.after all, what many a European town mainly does. For one reason and another, very sufficient reasons, as they seem to me, the League of 4ted Cross Societies lias decided to transfer its headquiirters from Geneva to Paris, a decision which has naturally caused a great stir in the Genevese teacup. The Director-General of the League, Sir Claude H'll, explained these reasons to the delegates of Red Cross Societies from all over the world. Geneva, he said, auite truly, is not so accessible as many other towns. And it. is undoubtedly somewhat away from what are the main highways of European communications, and, as time goes on, is likely to be more, not less,' distant from them. Again, he added, it has not the facilities for research, for instance, the statistics, documents, etc., available, which the Leogu« of Red Cross Societies needs for its scientific, .medical, and propagandist work. In Geneva, owing to a variety of causes, 'Vxperses are high," continued Sir Claude Hill, and in Paris, he estimates, as much work could be done as here for about £BOOO a ve«r less. Far more, expert assistance, scientific and other, would be available in Paris than here; and —though Sir Claude Hill did not say so quite so bluntly—people would be far readier to go to Tans to enquire intd'the League's work, attend its conferences, and generally get in touch with it, than they are to go to Geneva. What prevented a large contribution from New Zealand intended for Red Cross work from being given some time ago ttf the League of Red Cross Societies' here was, as I know, that the League could not be induced to publish a financial statement--in fact, none could be obtained. by our High Commissioner, Sir James Allen, who accordingly disposed elsewhere of the funds entrusted to him, some of which were given to the Save the Children Fund. Now, however, a public financial statement is promised, but I have not yet seen it.

I hawe already written in the Press about the treatment of consumption according to the method devised by ft voting Swiss, Dr. Spahlinger, and about his serum and the laboratory whore ho prepares it. Nothing interested Dr. Colquhoun so much an this laboratory, and though Dr. Spahlinger is alwavs exceedingly absorbed in his work, he consented, when asked, to find time to show it him. On his return from the laboratory Dr. Colquhoun met Sir Arthur Stanley and Sir Napier Burnett, with Brigadier-General Chnrhpain, another British delegate, who all asked him about his impressions. He replied that he considers that Dr. Spahlinger is a second Pasteur, mid tbnt his se ; ent^'^' , "discovery ought to be taken over by the British for the good of the world. "Seldom, if ever, in my life," Ve siid. "was I so much impressed with any scientific discovery as by that of Dr. Spahlinger."