INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS AND ESPERANTO

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIV, 12 July 1921, Page 2

INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS AND ESPERANTO

At t.!u* Tenth International Coni or(uu'O of tlu* lied Cross which has just i a ton place at Geneva, Esperanto scored another important success. in the special meeting of delegates on v iho , i!i of April under the presidency of M. Gustave Ador, a proposal by Dr 15. Y. Womi, President of the Chinese Red Cross and one ‘of the Chinese Delegates, relative to Esperanto, was brought .forward and supported _hy the Serbian, German, Polish,’ Swiss, and Argentine delegates. A her some discussion the President i’ccinested M ; . Edm. '.Privafc (translator to the Conference) !,■) ,4peak on the subject. the latter mentioned a largo 1 number ol eases of die use of. Esperanto during ihe war either on the battlefield or in ilie vamps of prisoners of war. In Siberia, especially, more than 4,C00 prisoners in camps under the -control oi the Japanese army thus learnt Esperanto. lie gave several oilier prools of the wide extension of the knowledge of Esperanto and pointed out that at the Conference at Washington a similar desire to the present hud been expressed, hub that , owing to the war it had not been followed up. in his opinion it was desirable that the young members cf«thq died Cross should learn Esperanto, which would greatly facilitate direct relations between* the Red Cross societies both in peace and war. There arc Esperanto .Manuals Cor the Red Cross, ni English, French, German and other languages. Eventually after some further discussion the following modioli was accepted foi 1 submission to the general mooting “Considering that the language dniicullv hinders in. many wavs die realisation of the international ideal of the Red Cross in its benencent work on the held of battle and among the prisoners of war and even at the Red Cross Congresses, the tenth Conference invites all the lied Cross organisations to encourage the study ol tlu? auxiliary language Esperanto among their members, particularly in the junior .lecucms, as o.no ol the most nowerfnl means of mutual.understanding and international collaboration in the sphere of the Pod Cross. The motion, put to hho .vote at the general meeting, was adopted.