EMPIRE RED CROSS

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 110, 3 February 1930, Page 10

EMPIRE RED CROSS

CONFERENCE IN LONDON Dominion Special Service.’ London, December 19. An' Empire Red Cross Conference will be held in London next spring. Invitations have been sent to all existing overseas Red Cross societies and also to various Colonies where no actual society is in being. In the Dominions the organisation is strong, Canada and Australia sharing the credit for initiating a junior Red Cross movement that has grown amazingly all over the world. In the Colonies, however, war-time organisations were allowed to lapse, and the time has come to revive at least some of these local organisations on a peace-time basis. The conference will seek to make known the manifold civilian activities of the Red Cross, and to link closer together the work of branches within tho Empire. The Duke of York will preside at an inaugural meeting on May 19, at St. James’s Palace, and after a week of discussion and work the conference will close with a review of detachments by Princess Mary at Hatfield. A feature of this review will be a demonstration of the work of the junior branch. There are 15,000 children enrolled in this, country, and the certificates of proficiency issued by the Red Cross Society have attained a recognised status. This junior branch is not in any sense competitive with other organisations. . It works through school teachers and within the Scout and Girl Guide organisations, inculcating simple rules of health and enlisting the natural enthusiasm of children for social service. In some backward countries it is the only health service provided in the schools.