The American National Red Cross constitutes the sole legitimate and recognized local branch, in this country, of the great International Association, of which the International Committee at Berne is the head. This government has uniformly recognized the American National Red Cross as the only civil body in the United States which is regularly affiliated with the International Committee of Berne, for the purpose of carrying out the arrangements elaborated by the various conferences held at Geneva, and the representatives of the American National Red Cross at those conferences have uniformly attended with the sanction of the United States Government. No additional recognition or sanction is needed in that quarter.
ADMIRAL WILLIAM T. SAMPSON.
GOVERNOR GENERAL’S PALACE, HAVANA.
The American National Red Cross is, consequently, the recognized source from which is derived all civil authority to use the official insignia and to work under the Red Cross as auxiliary to the army and navy. The national Red Cross, in each country, is responsible to its own government and, through the International Committee, to all the nations of the treaty, for the integrity of its branches. Auxiliaries of the Red Cross must therefore receive their charters or certificates of authority from the parent organization, which, in turn, is held to a strict observance of all its treaty obligations. Hence the use of the name or of the insignia of the Red Cross by civil societies, in relief work, without the sanction of the national organization, is an imposition and a violation of the treaty. Without such official permission or charter, no auxiliary can have any rightful existence, as a branch of the American National Red Cross.
After having secured for the people by treaty the right, through their own national organizations of the Red Cross, to contribute to the relief of the sick and wounded in war, the delegates to the international conventions at Geneva continued their labors until there was added to the functions of the Red Cross, the power to administer relief, in times of peace, on fields of national disaster. Out of compliment to the president of the American National Red Cross, who advocated this extension, the addition to the treaty is known as “The American Amendment.” Referring to it, the Secretary of State in his letter continues: