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TO CURE NOT KILL

HEALTH LEAGUE OF NATIONS TO FIGHT DISEASE PLAN AND ITS INCEPTION " (From "Westminster Gazette.") London, February 25. If war is a great seourgo against which it is time that tho nations were leagued, no less is it tim'e that tha nations were leagued against that othor scourge of mankind, disease, whicu kills many more than war. If the losses on- the battlefield during the past four years are terrific, the ravages even of one malady, Die mysterious "influenza," have been even greater. Millions of slain by shellfire—more millions by "grippe." I found Mr. H. P. Davidson an American of the type of which Mr. Wilson is the best example—a man who combines idealism with realism, high conceptions with practical plans for their execution. 1-Ti is the chairman of the Committee of the Red Cross .Societies, and as ho unfolded to me his project for the continuance of the Red Cross organisations on th'i great scale that, war has made familiar. I was struck by this combination of dream and scheme. He is one of those men who surprise Ms because they see clearly a few-simple facts that we all know in a loose way, and who carry them to their logical consequences. Think of the plagues that have decimated mankind ill all ages! Some of them have practically disappeared. Host of them are capable of reduction if not of total suppression. Tuberculosis, syphilis. in our day, plague, smallpox, typhoid in an earlier generation. , this new deadly .and strange,foe, the. inevitable, result of i lie immense eosmoPDlitan commingling of men on the slricken fields of the world,, is one of which, if it had been fought by Hie. concerted action of scientific men in all Darts of the globe, assisted by a universal army of Red Cross soldiers, would have infallibly disappeared.

Unified. Command. In brief, the plan is to form a health section of the League of Nations. At the meeting at Geneva a month after the sighing of peace the details of organisation will be decided upon. But in broad outline it may be taken that there will be a sort of central scientific board which will study all disease, fortified by facts gathered from every part of the globe; which will decide what shall be done; and which will be a kind of unified "command in the new warfare which will commence after the war—warfare, against the common enemy. It will be for the Red Cross Societies in the respective countries to curry out the executive work. There is no intention to disband the many thousands of men and women who'\are now serving under the banner of humanity. No discharge for them—no general demobilisation. The game of killing has now, it is honed, ceased, and wo can at least partially disarm. But the task of curing is only now beginning, and no ono should lay down his benevolent weapons.

Do not suppose that the task will be purely medical. It is indeed possible, as Mr. Davidson said, that the doctor, as ono understands his functions to-day, win find bis business transformed. What are the causes of disease? It is these that must lie boldly tackled. They are, in some..degree, already/known; but they havo' never been sufficiently correlated. Nor have the conditions in ono country been sufficiently recogniscd in their effect upon another country. The world is so inter-related that it is impossible for one peoplo to suffer without causing all other people to suffer.

New World Philosophy. A new international philosophy is being constructed. It existed vaguely before the war; it will exist consciously and clearly after the war. We must iiot ba content with the negative policy of preventing war; We must act in unison against'ail evils which afflict the peoples. Among: those evils are overcrowding,, malnutrition, poverty. It will be the business of a real International Health Organisation to see to it that the conditions which manufacture diseaso are abolished—that sweating shall ccase, that there should be a proper distribution of foodstuffs, that no one should lead a life of material -miotry.

It; is indeed ati ambitious programme; but it is the only programme which anyone who is permeated by the new spjjit citn adopt to-day. The United States of the World must not, il they are really to rebuild the world, act in separate compartments. There is need for more centralisation in tho devising of methods of combating the shocking conditions that have made the majority of mankind unhappy. There is need also for the universal deployment of i.he agents of such an association. Prom tho Health Headquarters of the world, as from Versailles, will go out the word of command. It is impossible to suppose that anv nation, any Government, could long resist the definite recommendations of a scientific body backed up by a million missionaries, proclaiming that such-and-such is the unanimous opinion of the best brains of the whole earth. Obvjouslv legislative power will be lacking, but if. is to be. hoped that the Governments will be represented, and that they will not be in a position to dispute the pronouncements of the organisation. his must be no perfunctory official body. It must be alive. If Jlr. Davison has his way it will be alive. It should be slated that Mr. Wilson is whole-heartedly in favour of-this scheme for lessening the distress c-f mankind. There is no question of a political theory or of political influences. The International lied Cross will have one aim, and if political parties oppose that aim they will not therefore have converted the. Red Cross into a political organisation. The object is to prevent and cure disease. and to rid the world of those things which are largely responsible for disease. There can be'in this effort at social reform and reconstruction 110 thought of creed or of race, since we aro indeed our brother's keeper, and if ho suffers we suffer, too.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19190415.2.49

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 172, 15 April 1919, Page 7

Word count
Tapeke kupu
988

TO CURE NOT KILL Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 172, 15 April 1919, Page 7

TO CURE NOT KILL Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 172, 15 April 1919, Page 7

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