At the Red Cross Celebration in Sidon — The President's Address

The papers have told of the splendid celebration held in Sidon, in the presence of the First Lady of Lebanon, to dedicate the house of the Lebanese Red Cross. At it the Honorable Governor Fouad Bey Sawaba delivered an excellent address, which the papers published; and here we set down the address that was delivered on behalf of the president:

My lady the First Lady of Lebanon, my lady the president of the Red Cross, the Marquise de Freige, ladies: Our distinguished president, the Marquise de Freige, has conferred upon me the honor of speaking to you today, on her behalf, about the worldwide institution of the Red Cross, which we feel great pride in having joined. Ladies, history carries us back to June 24, 1859, to the battle of Solferino, where the armies of France and Italy clashed with the armies of the Emperor of Austria, Franz Joseph. On that scorching day there passed across the battlefields a man of business named Dunant, who thereafter became a world figure. Dunant beheld what he beheld of the dead and the wounded heaped one upon another, and that appalling sight worked its powerful effect upon his great soul; and he wrote his well-known book, which stirred up in the European world the idea of international cooperation to comfort the wounded and bury the dead.

And in 1863, thanks to Dunant's efforts and his devotion, a preliminary conference was held, joined by seventeen states, to unite the various states for a second conference; and they concluded it with an international treaty which took Geneva as its permanent seat and the flag of Switzerland as its permanent emblem — the treaty which was, and remains still, the foundation on which the Red Cross society rests in every quarter of the world, and which was a great and palpable manifestation of human progress in the nineteenth century.

The Red Cross society is worldwide. In time of war it knows neither states nor borders; it makes no distinction between friend and foe, nor of race, nor of religion. It is the link that binds the head of the family to the family, the mother to the son. It is the brave, valiant nurse and the generous, openhanded comforter; it is the eye that never sleeps, keeping watch in the service of man and of suffering humanity.

And in time of peace the Red Cross society undertakes works according to the circumstances and requirements of each country, within the statutes of the society.

On June 28, 1945, the Lebanese Red Cross society was founded, and it had the honor that the First Lady of Lebanon should be its honorary president. The administrative committee is made up of thirty members, who elected as their president the Marquise de Freige; as vice-president, the wife of Riad Bey al-Solh; as treasurer, the wife of Georges Bey Tabet; as recording secretary, the wife of Dr. Rihan; and as corresponding secretary, the wife of Selim Bey Saab. The various committees were then formed, and each committee set to work in its own field with devotion and energy.

The committee of the infant-nursing home supplies sterilized milk daily to upwards of eighty children, weighs the children, and furnishes the mothers with advice and guidance.

The dispensary committee treats hundreds of the sick, supplies medicines, keeps orderly records for every patient, watches over expectant mothers — securing for them their needs and necessities — and secures hospital care for all when required.

The committee for the training of nurses has organized the nursing school and equipped it with all it requires in teachers and materials; seventeen nurses have graduated from it this year, and they train and practice in the society's dispensaries and in the various hospitals.

The Soldier's Home committee opened the Soldier's Home on November 24; the committee supervises it, providing for the soldiers' comfort and their recreation.

The sewing committee has provided five hundred baby layettes for the children of soldiers and gendarmes, each layette consisting of fifteen pieces; and it has taken a permanent place to which the ladies come to sew every Wednesday.

The general relief committee has set itself a program by which it watches over the public health and holds itself in readiness for emergencies.

The entertainments committee concerns itself with holding functions when the need arises, in order to strengthen the society's resources and its works.

And it is a cause of gladness that this feeling for the duty owed to humanity pervades all the inhabitants of Lebanon. Here we are today, coming to the flourishing city of Sidon to place our hands in the hands of its gracious ladies, and to work together, in solidarity and cooperation, in the service of humanity. The Lebanese Red Cross society welcomes the establishment of a branch in Sidon, out of which committees will be formed to work under the society's supervision according to the needs of the city. And I offer my thanks to the lady wife of Izzat Bey Joumblatt, who has graciously presented a house which will soon, God willing, become a dispensary from which kindness and tenderness, compassion and charity will go forth. Nor can I do other than bow in appreciation before the lofty feeling and the eagerness in service that pour forth so generously from the gracious ladies of Sidon.