But after all it was Germany standing between the two armies which distinguished herself. Since the Conference of 1863 she had been acting on the rule of preparation, and now found herself in readiness for all emergencies. The Central Committee of Berlin was flooded with contributions from the provincial committees. In the eight provinces of Prussia 4,000,000 of thalers were collected, and the other states of Germany were not behind. So munificently did the people bestow their aid, that large storehouses were provided in Berlin and in the provinces for its reception, and at the central depot in Berlin two hundred paid persons, besides a large number of volunteers, and nearly three hundred ladies and misses were employed in classifying, parceling, packing up, and dispatching the goods. Special railroad trains carried material to the points of need. In one train were twenty-six cars laden with 1800 to 2000 cwt. of supplies. Never had private charity, however carefully directed, been able to accomplish such prodigies of benevolence. It was now that the beneficence of the Treaty and the excellence of the organization were manifested. But the committee did not confine itself to sending supplies for the wounded to the seat of war. It established and provisioned refreshment stations for the trains, to which those unable to proceed on the trains to the great hospitals without danger to life, were admitted, nursed and cared for with the tenderest solicitude until they were sufficiently recovered to be removed, or death took them. At the station of Pardubitz from six hundred to eight hundred were cared for daily for two months, and lodging provided for three hundred at night. This example suffices to show the extraordinary results of well-organized plans and concerted action. During the war, the relief societies had also to contend with the terrible scourge of cholera. There can be no estimate of the misery assuaged and deaths prevented by the unselfish zeal and devotion of the wearers of the Red Cross.
In the interval between the wars of 1866 and 1867, and that of 1870-71, the time had been improved by the societies existing under the Geneva Treaty, in adding to their resources in every possible manner. Improvements were made in all articles of sanitary service; excellent treatises regarding the hygiene of the camp and hospital were widely circulated; the press had greatly interested itself in the promulgation of information regarding all matters of interest or instruction pertaining to sanitary effort, and almost universally lent its powerful influence to build up the societies. Ten new societies were formed during this time. In Germany the work of the Red Cross was so thoroughly organized, that at the first signal from Berlin, committees arrived as if by magic at all required points, forming a chain which extended over the whole country, and numbered over two thousand persons. This is more remarkable since Germany was a neutral power. Constant communication was kept up between these committees and the central bureau, and the most perfect order and discipline were maintained. Relief was sent from one or another of these stations as was needed. The state afforded free transport, and the voluntary contributions of the people kept up the supplies of sanitary material, so that there was never any lack or danger of failure. With the government transports, whether by land or water, there went always the agents of the Red Cross, protected by their badges and flag, to wait on the invoices, hasten their progress, see to their being kept in good order, and properly delivered at their destination. Depots of supplies were moved from place to place as exigencies demanded. The greatest care was taken to prevent disorder or confusion, and the best military circumspection and regularity prevailed. The great central depot at Berlin comprised seven sections, viz: Camp material; clothing; dressing, for wounds; surgical apparatus; medicines and disinfectants; food and tobacco; and hospital furnishings. Did space allow, it would be desirable to give statistics of the contributions in money and supplies to this service. Suffice it to say, the humanity of peoples is far beyond that of governments. Governments appropriate immense sums to carry on destructive conflicts, but the work of relief societies the world over, and especially during the war of 1870-71, has shown that the philanthropy of the people equals their patriotism. The sums given to assuage the miseries of the Franco-Prussian war were simply fabulous. In 1863, fears were expressed that there would be difficulty in collecting needful funds and supplies to carry out the designs of the treaty. These misgivings proved groundless. After the war of 1870-71, notwithstanding nothing had been withheld in the way of relief, the societies settled their accounts with large balances in their treasuries.
In France not nearly so much had been previously done to provide for the exigencies which fell upon them, but the committee worked with such vigor and so wrought upon the philanthropy of individuals, that active measures of relief were instantly taken. Gold and supplies poured into the hands of the committee at Paris. One month sufficed to organize and provide seventeen campaign ambulances or field hospitals, which immediately joined the army and accompanied it through the first period of the war, or until the battle of Sedan. In Paris ambulances were stationed at the railroad depots to pick up the wounded, and a bureau of information was created for soldiers’ families. When the siege of Paris was about to take place, the committee threw, without delay, a commission into Brussels charged with the direction and help of flying hospitals. Nine committees were established in the provinces, with power to act for the Central Committee and to invite the people to help. Meanwhile the committee in Paris did its utmost to mitigate the distress that reigned there, and to prepare for the result of the siege. History has recorded the sufferings, the horrors of misery that accompanied and followed that siege; but history can never relate what wretchedness was averted, what agonies were alleviated, what multitudes of lives were saved, by the presence and effort of the relief societies! What the state of France must have been without the merciful help of the Red Cross societies the imagination dare not picture. After the armistice was signed there were removed from Paris, under the auspices of the relief societies, ten thousand wounded men, who otherwise must have lingered in agony, or died from want of care; and there were brought back by them to French soil nine thousand men who had been cared for in German hospitals.
HELP FROM NEUTRAL COUNTRIES.
Neutral countries also during this war were ready and bountiful with help; and those working under the treaty did most effectual service. England contributed 7,500,000 francs, besides large gifts of sanitary supplies; in one hundred and eighty-eight days’ time she sent to the seat of war twelve thousand boxes of supplies through the agents of the Red Cross.
To give an idea of the readiness and efficacy with which the committees worked even in neutral countries, one instance will suffice. From Pont-a-Mousson a telegram was sent to London for two hundred and fifty iron beds for the wounded, and in forty-eight hours they arrived in answer to the request. England kept also at the seat of war agents to inform the committee at home of whatever was most needed in supplies. The neutral countries sent also surgeons, physicians and nurses, and in many other ways gave practical testimony to the benign efficacy of the Geneva treaty.
As will be seen by the foregoing pages, the objects and provisions of the Geneva convention and the societies acting under it, are designed for, and applicable to, the exigencies of war only. The close contact of the nations hitherto signing this treaty, renders them far more liable to the recurrence of war among them than our own, which by its geographical position and distance from neighboring nations, entertains a feeling of security which justifies the hope that we may seldom, if ever again, have occasion to provide for the exigencies of war in our land.
This leads the American Red Cross to perceive the great wisdom, foresight and breadth of the resolution adopted by the convention of 1863, which provides that “Committees shall organize in the manner which shall seem most useful and convenient to themselves;” also in their article on the organization of societies in these pages occurs the following: “To be efficient, societies must have government recognition, must bear the stamp of their national individuality, and be constructed according to the spirit, habits, and needs of the country they represent. This is essential to success.”
As no work can retain its vitality without constant action, so in a country like ours, with a people of so active a temperament, an essential element in endearing to them a work, is to keep constantly before them its usefulness. With this view the question of meeting the want heretofore felt on all occasions of public calamity, of sufficient extent to be deemed of national importance, has received attention at the hands of this association. For this purpose the necessary steps have been inaugurated to organize auxiliary societies, prepared to co-operate with the central association in all plans for prompt relief; whilst the volunteers who shall render personal aid will be expected to hold themselves in the same readiness as in the case of an international call.