VALUABLE WORK

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 125, 28 May 1937, Page 16

VALUABLE WORK

RED CROSS ABROAD

MANIFOLD ACTIVITIES

Interesting facts concerning the operations of the Red Cross Society abroad were given by Dr. A. Gillies, of Wellington, who recently returned from a tour of England and the Continent, in an address at the annual meeting of the Dominion Council of the New Zealand Red Cross Socijiy yesterday. In European countries, said Dr. Gillies, the Red Cross Society was much in evidence by virtue of the fact that as an auxiliary unit of the Army Medical Service it shared in the war activities and war preparations of these countries. It was closely linked up with the army. In Rome one saw huge depots with all kinds of hospital comforts and supplies. There were gifts and comforts from different nations for the war in Ethiopia, and this was evidence that international politics had not quenched the Red Cross spirit.

The Red Cross activities differed in all countries, and the work was closelyallied with the current history of each country. In Italy there was no barrier at the present time to the society carrying on commercial activities in direct competition with private enterprise. The object seemed to be to become self-sufficient if it tended to economy. On the Continent, said Dr. Gillies, he was impressed not only with the drastic thrift in some directions but with the revenue derived from such thrift. In Rome the society carried on a large and profitable industry of reclaiming waste paper. The paper was cleaned, graded, baled, and sold for the remanufacture of paper. In Germany Hitler had ordered that household bones should be taken to school by the children., They were collected and taken to factories where fat was extracted and the rest made into fertiliser. TEACHING OF HYGIENE. In Italy the State assumed responsibility in connection with tuberculosis, but the,need of special sanatoria was recognised by thie Red Cross Society, and it had its own institutions. The standard of medical and surgical treatment was very high there. Abroad there were certain things which indicated that many countries were much more backward in health matters than New Zealand, and the Red Cross directed its energy to the teaching of hygiene, this being a particular wprk of the Junior Red Cross. In travelling overseas one was never very far from the Red Cross. It was always in the forefront, and the tourist found that the man-in-the-street was well informed as to its work and ideals. Corresponding to the health camps in New Zealand the Red Cross in Italy controlled many preventoria, where debilitated children were housed and cared for. One on the outskirts of Turin was a magnificentlyappointed building, where some 200 children were housed and boarded and given a primary education. There was a big statue of Mussolini in front with one hand outstretched in characteristic 1 fashion symbolising aspiration. At sunset the ceremony of saluting the flag was most spectacular, children standing on the terraced steps with outstretched hands. TREATMENT OF DISEASES. The work of the Red Cross on the Continent was not carried on entirely by voluntary contributors as it was in most British countries, but the society worked hand in hand with the Governments. The Red Cross Society in Italy had,been active in combating the malarial menace, and many square miles of swamp had been reclaimed and made habitable. Similarly, the Belgium Red Cross devoted its energy to establishing stations on the Congo to cope with the problem of leprosy. In England a great deal of interest centred around the clinic for rheumatism in London, which was opened by the Red Cross Society in 1930. This was in the nature of a demonstration clinic, and as usual in England it was built by voluntary contributions. The object was to have a complete unit to treat people so that they could continue work and at the same time carry on the treatment. In this way the institution hoped to get the early cases of rheumatism. Although definite statistics were difficult to obtain, it was considered that in 1935 50 per cent, of oases were mired and another 35 per cent, definitely improved. In this year 150,000 treatments were administered.

Dr. Gillies said he was told that :J----though the treatment of rheumatism by the Red Cross was not generally undertaken in Europe, in Latvia and Estonia the society had provided facilities for mud baths, while in Sweden and Norway it had built hot vapour baths for the purpose.

"The Red Cross must remain organised and ready, and should always have the support of the people," concluded Dr. Gillies. "One is apt to be a bit envious when travelling abroad in noting the funds at the disposal of the Red Cross Society. I feel that in New Zealand we do a great amount of work on a limited income, and this reflects creditably on the selfless zeal of the personnel of the New Zealand society." (