Finally the moment arrived when the end of the necessity of the permanence of the Red Cross was in sight, and, coinciding with the raising of the blockade of Havana and other large cities where want and sickness had necessarily to be more accentuated than here, made it a question of the greatest good to the greatest number, made its removal to the west end of the island a necessity. There necessarily remained some poverty, some sickness, and some misery, but the public, and more especially the military government, had taken efficacious measures to cope with these evils, and while in one sense deploring your departure, your committee could only coincide with your views on the subject, and offer their conscientious opinion that the present state of affairs in Santiago de Cuba fully justified the departure of the Red Cross to districts where its presence was much more urgently required.
In conclusion, your committee beg to express their gratitude for the confidence which you have so kindly bestowed on them, and to deplore that owing to sickness and extreme press of work, they have not been able so fully to assist in your benevolent undertaking as would have been their ardent desire.
| (Signed) | Robert Mason, H. Michaelsen, Wm. Ramsden. |
Santiago de Cuba.
REPORT OF E. WINFIELD EGAN, M.D.
When the Red Cross was asked by the Department of State, and the Central Cuban Relief Committee, to go to Cuba in charge of the relief work among the reconcentrados, the members of Miss Barton’s personal staff, who had worked on other fields, were called to join the expedition. On the twentieth of February, while in my office in Boston, a telegram arrived containing the usual call to service in the field. Six days later, I reported at headquarters in the city of Havana.
Already the preliminary work was in progress. Committees were in the process of formation. A working census was being rapidly taken and information collected concerning the conditions in Havana and the cities and towns of the interior, upon which to base a plan of operations.
One of the first things essential to a systematic prosecution of the work was a commodious and convenient warehouse. This privilege was secured from the proprietors of the Almacen de San José, one of the largest bonded warehouses in Havana. Here the Red Cross supplies were carefully stored and classified, and from thence shipped upon requisitions to all points reached in the relief work.
But the feeding of the hungry was not the only work of the Red Cross. Aside from the distribution of food and clothing, hospitals and asylums were necessary for the care of the sick, and for the orphan children. One of the first asylums established was located in the Cerro, a suburban ward of Havana, and was known as the Asilo de Niños. Here, in addition to the usual work in the hospital department, outpatient clinics were instituted, including medical, surgical, gynecological, and, lastly, an eye and ear clinic. As the building selected for the asylum was originally built for a family residence, it was difficult to adapt it to all the needs of both an asylum and a hospital. For the last named clinic a dark room was of course needed, and for this reason this department was open during the evenings, from 8 to 11 p.m., when, with nature’s kind co-operation, the necessary obscurity was always assured. The nightly attendance averaged about seventy. Among these patients, the diseases of the eye were generally traceable to starvation; the proportion of cases for “refraction” were comparatively few.