RED CROSS WORK

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 193, 30 July 1932, Page 10

RED CROSS WORK

ASSISTING THE DISTRESSED. SISTER RISTORI SPEAKS AT HASTINGS WOMEN’S CLUB. At Thursday’s meeting of the Hastings Women’s Club Mrs Lowry introduced Sister Ristori, who had come from Napier to speak of the Red Cross organistion. Mrs Lowry urged everyone present to becoame a member of this fine society, the subscription being only 2/6 per annum, and she also expressed the hope that everyone who could do so would attend the nursing classes held by Sister Ristori on Mondays at 7 p.m. in the Council Room. It was announced also that the club birthday party will be held on August 3rd—Wednesday next. In opening her address Sister Ristori said:— . . “When I told a friend I was appointed Red Cross sister for Hawke’s Bay she congratulated me, but added: ‘Why is the Red Cross bursting forth? is there another war coming?’ Many of us probably have the same idea, that the movement is something connected with the war. A short history of the society may help. “During the Crimean War Florence Nightingale first drew the attention of the thinking world to the unbelievable hardships the soldiers were sufferings. and following her lead five years later we get Monsieur Dunant, a Swiss, horror-struck at seeing thousands perish without either doctors or nurses on the battlefield of Solferino in the Italian War of Independence,” continued Sister Ristori. “He made it his life’s work to see what could be done to remedy this, and in 1864 we get the result of his labours at Geneva, where 24 governments were represented. This was 10 years after Florence Nightingale came before the public eye, and it was she who drew up the instructions for the British delegates.” RESULTS OF CONVENTION. Sister Ristori went on to say that that convention settled the following things:—The wounded were to be respected ; hospitals were to be neutral ; all personnel and medical supplies were to be protected; and the Red Cross was to be the symbol. “Forty-three years later these principles were also applied to naval warfare,’’ continued the speaker. “Then in 1919, Japan, France, Italy, U.S.A, and England founded the league of Red Cross societies, of which 58 nations are now members. The object of the league was to use this vast movement in times of peace as well as in times of war, and its objects were three-fold: To improve health; to prevent disease; and to lessen suffering.

‘ ‘ The latter is a big undertaking, for the Red Cross renders assistance in all big disasters, and there are reckoned to be 300 a year. Most of you know the help it gave in Hawke’s Bay, when 21 different nations sent financial assistance. It may be of interest to hear of a few of the things the Red Cross does in peace time. Last year I personally worked with them when they rendered assistance to the Kentucky mountaineers, many of whom were literally starving from the drought. One of the biggest undertakings was after the Mississippi flood, which rendered homeless 600,000 .nearly half the population of New Zealand. These refugees were housed for two months, as were also all their animals—--100,000 chickens, 30,000 hogs, 30,000 cattle, and 10,000 mules. To prevent an epidemic the people were all inoculated against typhoid and smallpox. As the floods subsided the land had to be cleared of animals who had perished, and once this was done efforts were made to re-establish the folk in their own States. They were provided with temporary food for themselves and their stock, seed, farming implements, live stock and poultry, simple household furniture, medical aid, and sanitary service, buildings and repairs for sanitary shelter, to say nothing of help given to rebuild their towns. HELPING HUMANITY. “These are briefly just a very few of the activities of the various Red Cross societies. Here I will just mention that there is no need of enmity between the Red Cross and the Order of St. John. Our aims are the same, to help humanity in every way possible. The St. John order is much older than ours, dating back to the crusades, but the Order of St. John is mainly British, and its aim is the care of the sick and first aid, both of which are practised

and taught. The Bed Cross is international, and its aims and objects cover a bigger field, as I have tried to show.” Sister Ristori concluded her address by stating that her work came under the prevention of' disease and the improvement of health. It was largely educational: to teach others to help themselves. Even if the knowledge she gave never saved a life, used properly and in the right place it would certainly add to someone’s comfort. By joining the home nursing classes and paying 4s 4d per annum (which worked out at one penny per week) the womenfolk of the country would not only be helping themselves, but the money paid in would sustain the society and, through the society, would go towards helping countless others who had been hit by disaster as unexpectedly as the people of Hawke’s Bay had been hit in the 1931 earthquake.