THE BIRTH OF THE RED CROSS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 253, 4 December 1914, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE BIRTH OF THE RED CROSS.

The Rod Cross of which we hear much 10-day, owes its real origin to tin- great and terrible campaign of IMl>. when Napoleou made-it his boast that be would free lt;«1v "from the Alps to the Adriatic." At Jhe great battle of Magenta over ton thousand Austrian* and some five thousand G'rench soldiers were dead and dying on th? fields. A Swiss gentleman, named M. Henri Dunaut, made a pilgrimage to thai battlefield, and Ha* an involuntary eyewitness of that awful carnage of the battle of Solfcrino, a battle which lasted some sixteen hours, and left some thirty thousand dead and wounded. Henri Dunont realised that the medical service, of what was probably the greatest army in the world was absolutely inadequate to cope with the casualties, and Ik. was at once compelled to take some action to rectify the matter. The result was that ho wrote a small book lor private circulation, entitled ■l'n Souvenir de Solferino." and this, tn.'etb-r with his private appeal, re-i-uited in Napoleou HI- commanding Piluuui to Irs presence, where, with the great Marshal McMahou. they senotiJv talked matters ova. Tho result of this was a conference of the large Powers, railed together by the Swis; Federal Government, ut wliiob llenii Dimmit plaecd bis propoxate. Out nl' this OoneAa Conference of 1*1)1 resulted the Geneva Convent-inn. under which nil medical supplies and personnel in war time was protected.