THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



385 



His two governing ideas were perma- 

 nence and neutrality. "Sans distinction 

 de nationalite" runs through the book 

 like a musical motif. Undoubtedly he 

 meant more by "neutrality" than has 

 proved practicable in the actualities of 

 warfare. Nurses and doctors cannot be 

 drained of their patriotism, nor is it de- 

 sirable that they should be, especially 

 when the German autocracy is the enemy. 

 But the neutrality idea does still pervade 

 Red Cross with respect to the actual 

 wounded. 



dunant's shorts bear fruit at geneva 



American Red Cross will, of course, 

 render no aid whatsoever behind the Ger- 

 man lines, as it will permit no other 

 traitorous act of giving comfort to the 

 enemy; but when the German soldier 

 falls wounded within the Allies' lines, he 

 gets Red Cross care, for he is no longer 

 an enemy ; he is only a suffering man. 



Dunant agitated his ideas by speech 

 and by visits to various courts of Europe, 

 and the result was that, with the cooper- 

 ation of the Geneva Society of Public 

 Utility, a humanitarian organization 

 which had existed since far back in the 

 eighteenth century, there was held in 

 Geneva a conference in 1863 to consider 

 ways and means of organizing and oper- 

 ating allied societies of relief in all Euro- 

 pean countries, functioning through a 

 central society with headquarters at Gen- 

 eva. 



This was not a diplomatic convention, 

 but a conference of representatives of 

 various European powers to take counsel 

 as to methods of permanent provision for 

 the care of sick and wounded soldiers. 

 Ten articles were framed to govern the 

 organization and operation of these so- 

 cieties and their agents in the theater of 

 war, Article XIII stipulating that "they 

 shall wear in all countries, as a uniform 

 distinctive sign, the white arm badge 

 with a red cross on it" — this being the 

 Swiss national colors in reverse. 



As a result of this conference, there 

 was held in Geneva, in 1864, another con- 

 ference, this time with diplomatic au- 

 thority, for the purpose of dealing, not 

 with voluntary societies, but with the 

 whole question of the rights of the 

 wounded and of the army medical corps. 



This resulted in the famous 1864 "Con- 

 vention," or "Geneva Treaty," which 

 wrote the rights of wounded and of those 

 who succor them into the laws of nations. 

 The United States had had no repre- 

 sentative at the 1863 Conference, but was 

 'informally" represented at the 1864 Con- 

 vention. The Department of State ex- 

 pressly stipulated that the representation 

 must be informal, both because of the 

 American tradition of non-participation 

 in European alliances, and especially be- 

 cause the United States was then engaged 

 in a civil war and could not submit its 

 affairs to what it feared might prove to 

 be an outside interference. 



THE UNITED STATES NOT SIGNATORY TO 

 THE 1864 TREATY 



But though the United States was not 

 signatory to the 1864 Treaty, and though 

 its representatives did not participate in 

 debate on the floor of the Convention, the 

 United States was powerful in determin- 

 ing the course which the Conference took 

 and in the character of the resultant 

 agreement, for the United States had in 

 practical operation, working under war 

 conditions, the first actual permanent mili- 

 tary relief association, the United States 

 Sanitary Commission. 



What had been learned in experience 

 by this Commission was made clear to 

 the European delegates to the Conference 

 by Mr. Charles S. P. Bowles, an agent of 

 the Sanitary Commission, who had been 

 authorized to attend the Conference in 

 company with Mr. George W. Fogg, 

 United States Minister to Switzerland. 



Mr. Bowles wrote an intimate account 

 of the extra-legal proceedings of the 

 Conference, of the many conversations 

 and colloquies held in his pleasant hotel 

 rooms overlooking the lake: "I availed 

 myself of all suitable occasions to impress 

 upon the members the character and ex- 

 tent of the great work done, and doing, 

 to mitigate and alleviate the sufferings of 

 the sick and wounded — whether friend or 

 foe — by the men and women of the 

 United States. . . . Generally it was 

 admitted that our people in America have 

 practically solved pretty much all the 

 questions which this international con- 

 gress was met to consider." 



