Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-02-07

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On$the hills bordering Lake Garda,
70 the south. lies an old Battle-Ground
where sixty years ago the French
For month past, not only French.
and Italian, but British troops have
been streaming through t~htsrregfon..
They have been reinforcing the new
front on the line Of the, Piave,r where
the italian armies checked and held
the invading Apstrians Of 1917. who
came down late In October driving
before them half a million refugees
from Frtuli and the Veneto.
This reawakening of old echoes Of
gun fire in the long struggle for
italian liberation had its response In
the declaration of wal by the congress
Of the United States. But there Is an,
other span OF circumstance in which
America played a mor immediate
part, from Padua and Venice oNthe
sfctlies, in the prompt dispatch OF
stock from the Paris headquarters Of
the American Red Cross commission
err OF Europe a &S&Ba sYi
For it was or this old battlefield Of
fSolferino. that in 1859 Henri unant.
the Swiss f~orerunner Of s'the Red
Cross. went out before the heat of the
conflict had spent itself. tending the
wounded who lay in anguish. without
water, or comfort, or medical aid,
conception Of a non-combatant serv-
ice which would be respected by all
armies. There followed that con-
ference at Geneva in 1864, which
chose h Swiss flag, reversed, as its
symbol red cross or a white Held
and laid the framework for those
international understandings which
n ~44 u - ~ 49, - - A0,lA-.-N. - v.y~,,-LAl.
for ftretcher bearer and am bulAncei
man and nurse. wherever the battle
lines run. Y HI
Tho Red Cross or to Italy.
And within four days after our dec
|laration! Of war against Austria, the
first section Of 20, Ear of the Ameri-
can Red. Cross Ambulance Corps for
Italy traversed the old battlefield of
lSolferino on the way to the Piaye
lfront. Y
The Red Gross was even then in the
sixth week Of its emergent- relief work
for Italian refugees.
the question on which it seemed like
lily. that the Geneva conference O F1864
would split was the belief Of the Eu-
ropean delegates that the military
commanders would not brook the in
trusion of other than fighting men in
the midst of their operations! An
american, a member OF that Volun-
tary Sanitary commission which play
led 50 active q part in all the am
Ipaigns of the armies of the North,
carried the way with his testimony
fresh from the battlefelds of our
ICivil war. as#s
In. the intervening years, Ameri-
cans pioneered by employing the Red
organization. which sprang from
the bloody slopes of this Italian bat
tlefield, as our chief agency for sue
cour in times Of great fires, foods and
other forms OF internal disaster. There
fhas been, therefore, a sense of noble
Indebtedness. nobly returned, that has
entered these weeks into the eager out
reaching of civilian help from the
peoplev of the United States to the
italian people, sorely pressed as they
are in turning every city and village
of the peninsula. into a. haven Of
refuge for women and children ren-
dered homeless by the invasion.
Made American Aid q Reality.
At a time then, when American par
ticipatioh in the war has been only q
American Red Cross, with little more,
than a c%orporal's guard of active
workers, has made American fellow
ship a reality.
Before it's own permanent commits
sion to Italy had vet sailed from
New York, the existing organization in
France. at the very peak of its load
OF work for American troops. French
troops and Trench civilians. was able
to fill in the breach with experienced
men; open central Offices in Rome
early in November; canvass the situa-
ton by wire through the American
Iembassy and consular service; dis
patch an ambulance section and two
trains of supplies; make wholesale
purchases in italy while these sup.
plies were enroute from France):
wire money to spend on the spot to
consuls, committees and local agencies
(while these last supplies were n
route from the Italian markets.; send
out north and south the nucleus Of a
field staff: INT commission two rank
ing American experts in emergency
! ~~vAv-A -vv- -..---f