A Letter from the International Red Cross Conference in New Delhi

The Nineteenth International Conference was held in New Delhi (India) between October 24 and November 7 last. It was attended by 400 delegates, men and women, representing 83 states. The Lebanese Red Cross was represented by Mesdames: Laure Tabet (president), Heneni Tarcha, Ellen Rihan, and Najla Saab.

From New Delhi, Mrs. Najla Saab has written to us describing the atmosphere that reigned over this great international conference, which the honored government of India fostered with all that country's deep-rooted tradition, fine hospitality, and graciousness.

How lofty is this atmosphere in which we live in New Delhi, and how wonderful! Here is the world of the Red Cross, in which the meanings of love, service, and brotherhood shine forth. A world that knows no borders and recognizes no distinctions. A world striving toward an all-embracing universality founded upon complete equality and complete disinterestedness.

In New Delhi today are the delegates of eighty-three states, with their different languages, customs, beliefs, opinions, and countries, joined together by a bond of mutual affection; all of them profess the humanity of man, believe in equality without discrimination or favor, and all of them serve without payment or reward.

These delegations represent a world unity, an all-embracing humanity, and a close cooperation.

These delegations represent one honorable, generous, benevolent family, volunteering and ready always and forever for the service of man to his brother man.

We are today in India, this country of ancient civilization, enjoying the fine hospitality of the Indian Red Cross and the Eastern generosity, courtesy, and gentleness of manner that are among the marks of every member of the Indian people — this people whose thinking is governed by things of the spirit and whose course is guided by the teachings of its immortal leader, the Mahatma Gandhi, the teacher who believed in justice and peace and strove to bring them about.

As for these delegations that have flocked from every quarter of the world and crossed vast distances, I judge their feeling, and what moved them to bear these hardships, by our own feeling: we left our country and our homes to gather as one great family encircled by a halo of the sanctity of love and mutual brotherhood.

These delegations have flocked from one end of the world to the other to study, to inquire, and to exchange views on how the principles of this organization may be realized amid the developments and vicissitudes of this age. They have flocked to cooperate, to lend support, and to affirm their faith, in the atomic age, in the oldest, dearest, and strongest of humanitarian movements.

The ceremony was majestic and magnificent. In it the flags of eighty-three states embraced, with tenderness, dignity, and honor, the flag of the Red Cross — the flag of service, love, and disinterestedness — and the spirit of tolerance, affection, and brotherhood reigned over the whole. Its speakers, for all their differing creeds, leanings, and material nationalisms, were unanimous in holding fast to humanitarian principles, in achieving world peace, in condemning the selfishness and the bitter strife that poison minds and hearts, and in embracing the spirit of tolerance, of which Mr. Nehru said that it will put an end to disputes if we make it our constitution.

Hearts filled with love, and good and kindly souls in every part of the world, are turned today toward New Delhi, full of hope that the Nineteenth Conference will bring forth decisive and respected resolutions, adding to those that came before one more proof that this humanitarian organization has been and remains a firm rock of salvation amid a raging sea of selfishness and strife, and that the principles of the Red Cross do not die and will never die so long as there are in the world believing men and women, brothers and sisters, men and women enlisted to lighten calamities, to serve humanity, and to spread justice and peace.