CHARTER

[Public—No. 4.]

An Act to incorporate the American National Red Cross.

Whereas, on the twenty-second of August, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, at Geneva, Switzerland, plenipotentiaries respectively representing Italy, Baden, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, France, Prussia, Saxony, and Wurttemberg and the Federal Council of Switzerland, agreed upon ten articles of a treaty or convention for the purpose of mitigating the evils inseparable from war; of ameliorating the condition of soldiers wounded on the field of battle, and particularly providing, among other things, in effect, that persons employed in hospitals and in according relief to the sick and wounded and supplies for this purpose shall be deemed neutral and entitled to protection; and that a distinctive and uniform flag shall be adopted for hospitals and ambulances and convoys of sick and wounded and an arm badge for individuals neutralized; and

Whereas, said treaty has been ratified by all of said nations, and by others subsequently, to the number of forty-three or more, including the United States of America; and

Whereas, the International Conference of Geneva of eighteen hundred and sixty-three recommended “that there exist in every country a committee whose mission consists in co-operating in times of war with the hospital service of the armies by all means in its power”; and

Whereas, a permanent organization is an agency needed in every nation to carry out the purposes of said treaty, and especially to secure supplies and to execute the humane objects contemplated by said treaty, with the power to adopt and use the distinctive flag and arm badge specified by said treaty in article seven, on which shall be the sign of the Red Cross, for the purpose of co-operating with the “Comité International de Secours aux Militaires Blessés” (International Committee of Relief for the Wounded in War); and

Whereas, in accordance with the requirements and customs of said international body such an association adopting and using said insignia was formed in the city of Washington, District of Columbia, in July, eighteen hundred and eighty-one, known as “The American National Association of the Red Cross,” re-incorporated April seventeenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, under the laws of the District of Columbia, and re-incorporated by Act of Congress in June, nineteen hundred; and

Whereas, it is believed that the importance of the work demands a repeal of the present charter and a re-incorporation of the society under the Government supervision: Now, therefore,

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That Clara Barton, Hilary A. Herbert, Thomas F. Walsh, Charles C. Glover, Charles J.Bell, Mabel T. Boardman, George Dewey, William R. Day, Nelson A. Miles, James Tanner, William K. Van Reypen, John M. Wilson, Simon Wolf, James R. Garfield, Gifford Pinchot, S. W. Woodward, Mary A. Logan, Walter Wyman, of Washington, District of Columbia; George H. Shields, of Missouri; William H. Taft, F. B. Loomis, Samuel Mather, of Ohio; Spencer Trask, Robert C. Ogden, Cleveland H. Dodge, George C. Boldt, William T. Wardwell, John G. Carlisle, George B. McClellan, Elizabeth Mills Reid, Margaret Carnegie, of New York; John H. Converse, Alexander Mackay-Smith, J. Wilkes O’Neill, H. Kirke Porter, of Pennsylvania; Richard Olney, W. Murray Crane, Henry L. Higginson, William Draper, Frederick H. Gillett, of Massachusetts; Marshall Field, Robert T. Lincoln, Lambert Tree, of Illinois; A. C. Kaufman, of South Carolina; Alexander W. Terrell, of Texas; George Gray, of Delaware; Redfield Proctor, of Vermont; John W. Foster, Noble C. Butler, Robert W. Miers, of Indiana; John Sharp Williams, of Mississippi; William Alden Smith, of Michigan; Horace Davis, W. W. Morrow, of California; Daniel C. Gilman, Eugene Levering, of Maryland; J. Taylor Ellyson, of Virginia; Daniel R. Noyes, of Minnesota; Emanuel Fiske, Marshall Fiske, of Connecticut, together with five other persons to be named by the President of the United States, one to be chosen from each of the Departments of State, War, Navy, Treasury, and Justice, their associates and successors, are hereby created a body corporate and politic in the District of Columbia.

Sec. 2. That the name of this corporation shall be “The American National Red Cross,” and by that name shall have perpetual succession, with the power to sue and be sued in courts of law and equity within the jurisdiction of the United States; to have and to hold such real and personal estate as shall be deemed advisable and to accept bequests for the purposes of this corporation hereinafter set forth; to adopt a seal and the same to alter and destroy at pleasure; and to have the right to have and to use, in carrying out its purposes hereinafter designated, as an emblem and badge, a Greek red cross on a white ground, as the same has been described in the Treaty of Geneva, August twenty-second, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, and adopted by the several nations acceding thereto; to ordain and establish bylaws and regulations not inconsistent with the laws of the United States of America or any State thereof, and generally to do all such acts and things (including the establishment of regulations for the election of associates and successors) as may be necessary to carry into effect the provisions of this Act and promote the purposes of said organization; and the corporation hereby created is designated as the organization which is authorized to act in matters of relief under said treaty. In accordance with Article seven of the treaty, the delivery of the brassard allowed for individuals neutralized in time of war shall be left to military authority.

Sec. 3. That the purposes of this corporation are and shall be—

First. To furnish volunteer aid to the sick and wounded of armies in time of war, in accordance with the spirit and conditions of theconference of Geneva of October, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, and also of the Treaty of the Red Cross, or the Treaty of Geneva, of August twenty-second, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, to which the United States of America gave its adhesion on March first, eighteen hundred and eighty-two.

Second. And for said purposes to perform all the duties devolved upon a national society by each nation which has acceded to said treaty.

Third. To succeed to all the rights and property which have been hitherto held and to all the duties which have heretofore been performed by the American National Red Cross as a corporation duly incorporated by Act of Congress, June sixth, nineteen hundred, which Act is hereby repealed and the organization created thereby is hereby dissolved.

Fourth. To act in matters of voluntary relief and in accord with the military and naval authorities as a medium of communication between the people of the United States of America and their Army and Navy, and to act in such matters between similar national societies of other governments through the “Comité International de Secours,” and the Government and the people and the Army and Navy of the United States of America.

Fifth. And to continue and carry on a system of national and international relief in time of peace and apply the same in mitigating the sufferings caused by pestilence, famine, fire, floods, and other great national calamities, and to devise and carry on measures for preventing the same.

Sec. 4. That from and after the passage of this Act it shall be unlawful for any person within the jurisdiction of the United States to falsely and fraudulently hold himself out as, or represent or pretend himself to be, a member of, or an agent for, the American National Red Cross, for the purpose of soliciting, collecting, or receiving money or material; or for any person to wear or display the sign of the Red Cross, or any insignia colored in imitation thereof for the fraudulent purpose of, inducing the belief that he is a member of or an agent for, the American National Red Cross. Nor shall it be lawful for any person or corporation, other than the Red Cross of America, not now lawfully entitled to use the sign of the Red Cross, hereafter to use such sign or any insignia colored in imitation thereof for the purposes of trade or as an advertisement to induce the sale of any article whatsoever. If any person violates the provisions of this section, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be liable to a fine of not less than one nor more than five hundred dollars, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or both, for each and every offense. The fine so collected shall be paid to the American National Red Cross.

Sec. 5. That the governing body of the said American National Red Cross shall consist, in the first instance, of a central committee numbering eighteen persons, to be appointed in the manner following, namely: Six by the incorporators herein named and twelve by thePresident of the United States, one of whom shall be designated by the President to act as chairman. It shall be the duty of the central committee to organize with as little delay as possible State and Territorial societies, including the District of Columbia, under such rules as the said committee may prescribe. When six or more State or Territorial societies have been formed, thereafter the central committee shall be composed as follows: Six to be appointed by the incorporators, six by the representatives of the State and Territorial societies at the annual meeting of the incorporators and societies, and six by the President of the United States, one of whom shall be designated by him as chairman and one each to be named by him from the Departments of State, War, Navy, Treasury, and Justice.

The first six members of the central committee elected by the incorporators at the first annual meeting, and the first six members of the central committee elected by the State and Territorial delegates, shall when elected select by lot from their number two members to serve one year, two members to serve two years, and two members to serve three years, and each subsequent election of members shall be for a period of three years or until their successors are duly elected and qualify. The six members of the central committee appointed by the President at the annual meeting shall serve for one year.

The President shall fill as soon as may be any vacancy that may occur by death, resignation, or otherwise in the chairmanship or in the membership of the central committee appointed by him. And any vacancy that may occur in the six members of the central committee herein provided to be appointed by the incorporators or in the six to be appointed by the representatives of the State societies shall be filled by temporary appointments to be made by the remaining members of the six in which the vacancy or vacancies may occur, such appointees to serve until the next annual meeting.

The central committee shall have power to appoint from its own members an executive committee of seven persons, five of whom shall be a quorum, who, when the central committee is not in session, shall have and exercise all the powers of the central committee.

The Secretary of War shall within thirty days after the passage of this Act call a meeting at a time and place to be designated by him in the city of Washington of the incorporators hereunder, giving at least thirty days’ notice thereof in one or more newspapers, and the annual meeting of said incorporators, their associates and successors, shall thereafter be held in said city on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in December, the first of said meetings to be held in December, nineteen hundred and five. Fifteen members shall constitute a quorum at any annual or special meeting.

Voting by proxy shall not be allowed at any meeting of the incorporators, annual or special, nor at any meeting of State or Territorial societies organized under the provisions of this charter.

Sec. 6. That the said American National Red Cross shall on the first day of January of each year make and transmit to the Secretary of War, a report of its proceedings for the preceding year, includinga full, complete, and itemized report of receipts and expenditures of whatever kind, which report shall be duly audited by the War Department, and a copy of said report shall be transmitted to Congress by the War Department.

Sec. 7. That Congress shall have the right to repeal, alter, or amend this Act at any time.

Approved January 5, 1905.

An international convention has been called to be held at Geneva in June, for the revision of the Treaty of Geneva, sometimes called the Treaty of the Red Cross, to which convention the United States Government will send three representatives. Reports of the proceedings of this convention will be given in later numbers of this Bulletin.—Editor.

THE RED CROSS SOCIETY OF JAPAN HAS ISSUED THE FOLLOWING REPORTS OF THE RED CROSS WORK SINCE THE OUTBREAK OF THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR UP TO SEPTEMBER, 1905.

War is the most dreadful thing that mankind ever witnesses. It is a horror in itself. So many men have been killed, wounded and invalided on both sides in our present war in the course of ten months that one is aghast at the number of casualties.

The Red Cross Society of Japan has been strenuously performing its duty of caring for the sick and wounded ever since the war broke out regardless, as a matter of course, to which colors the sufferers belong only remembering the principles of Humanity and Brotherhood.

The first work we undertook on the outbreak of the war was to look after the Russian sailors, who had been wounded during the naval battle off Chemulpo, Korea.

The wounded sailors, who were on board the Russian cruiser,Varyag, numbering twenty-four persons were taken first to the French cruiser,Pascal, and then to a temporary hospital that had been hastily established at Chemulpo by our Society. For twenty-two days, those sailors were entirely under the care of the hospital, in which, of course, all necessary treatment was given to them. Unfortunately, however, two of the patients died and the rest when convalescent were brought to a hospital at Matsuyama, Japan. There we gave them further treatment, which resulted in their complete recovery, although five out of the twenty-two were unfortunately obliged to have their hands or legs operated upon and cut off.

Her Majesty the Empress hearing about these cases has graciously furnished them with artificial limbs. When they had so far recovered, the Japanese Government sent them back to their homes in Russia. The Russian Government sent us a letter of grateful thanks for what we had done, offering, in addition, through the French Consul at Seoul, Korea, to defray all the expenses incurred. As we refused the offer, the Russian Government subscribed 2,000.00 Yen instead to our relief funds, which we accepted with appreciation.

No sooner had we been instructed by the Army to get our two hospital ships,Hakuai MaruandKosai Maru, in readiness than they were prepared for embarkation. The names of the vessels had beenintimated to Russia by the authorities in accordance with the rules of the Hague Convention.

TheHakuai Maruon the 21st of February, and theKosai Maruon the 25th of the same month, sailed for Ujina, thence forward being continuously engaged in the transportation of the sick and wounded of both belligerents between Japan and different ports in Korea and Manchuria.

The increase in the number of the sufferers has naturally kept pace with the progress of the war and in consequence nine more hospital ships had to be prepared in which twenty-one relief detachments of our Society are now working under the direction of an Army surgeon. On land, we have already dispatched over eighty-two relief detachments to districts where they are required in Korea and Manchuria and also to the hospital of both Army and Navy at home. Several of these detachments are solely engaged in caring for the Russian prisoners.

It may be well to state that one relief detachment consists of

2 Surgeons1 Apothecary1 Clerk2 Chief nurses (men or women)20 Nurses (men or women)

2 Surgeons

1 Apothecary

1 Clerk

2 Chief nurses (men or women)

20 Nurses (men or women)

When several detachments are dispatched to one place, one Director, one Superintending surgeon and one Superintending nurse are placed as supervisors over all such detachments. Not infrequently, however, it becomes necessary to divide one relief detachment into two or more. All relief detachments to be sent to the front, it must be noted, consist of men only; those at home of women nurses; and those on board the hospital ships are of both sexes, namely, one detachment of women nurses and one or two detachments of men nurses, the number of which is fixed proportionately to the size of the capacity of the ships.

According to the regulations of our relief service in time of war, there are Patients’ Transport Columns but never before have they been used until the present war. We have now organized one such column on trial, selecting the stretcher-bearers out of the retired privates, who had once been trained in the Army and instructing them anew for two months; and we have sent them to the battle fields in Manchuria. This column consists of

1 Director1 Surgeon1 Clerk2 Chief men nurses3 Chief stretcher-bearers3 Men nurses

1 Director

1 Surgeon

1 Clerk

2 Chief men nurses

3 Chief stretcher-bearers

3 Men nurses

We may form some more columns if this is successful and has good results.

The total number of all the detachments as mentioned above and already sent out together with women nurses amounts to 3,266 persons and, moreover, we are prepared to dispatch as many more as are necessary at any moment.

All the women nurses of our society go through scientific and practical training for two and three years, the latter term being for the higher course of nursing, whilst the men nurses are required to take a ten months’ course of training.

Our Main Red Cross Hospital in Tokyo has now been appropriated to the use of the Army. It is, therefore, made a branch hospital of the Tokyo Military Reserve Hospital. Since the outbreak of the war, many additional barracks have been built on the wide ground of the Red Cross Hospital. Moreover, an estate we had purchased at Hiroshima for the purpose of building our hospital there has been put at the disposal of the Army and a temporary hospital has been erected.

The Ladies’ Volunteer Nursing Association of the Red Cross Society of Japan has become more active in many ways, the members have applied themselves with far greater earnestness and energy to the study of first aid and nursing under the direction of our medical men. Moreover, they are occupying themselves very busily every day making various kinds of bandages and caps for the patients, looking after them at the relief stations, which are prepared for those who are travelling, visiting them at the hospitals, helping them to write to their families at home and in various other serviceable ways. Theirs is a self-sacrificing work.

Since the outbreak of the war, the number of the members is daily increasing. Princesses, the wives of the Nobility and of the diplomatic staffs and other distinguished ladies have all joined.

Her Majesty the Empress has always been greatly interested in our relief work. On the 20th of last June, for instance, she paid a visit to the Ladies’ Volunteer Nursing Association and particularly looked at the members making bandages. On the 3d of September, she summoned our president to the palace and spoke to him very encouragingly about the Red Cross Work.

Our sister societies abroad have earnestly and practically extended their sympathy and kindness to us by offering gifts in various forms, which we have gratefully accepted. The following are the details of gifts we have received up to date:

9 cases of bandage materials and clothes from the Red Cross Society of Germany.

515 cases of various kinds of wine and nourishment from the Red Cross Society of Italy.

2 sets of necessary articles for a field hospital taking in 100 patients from the French Relief Society for the Wounded Soldiers.

The Red Cross Society of Spain and the National Red Cross Society of America have kindly offered us their assistance. Besides these public gifts, many individual men and women have come forward and offered us their services to nurse the wounded soldiers.

We deeply regret that we are not able to accept these kind offers at present, simply because we have still a sufficient number of well equipped relief corps to meet all the emergencies we have had as yet to encounter.

However, the Government of Japan accepted the services of Mrs. McGee, an American lady, with nine nurses, and Mrs. Richardson, an English lady, to nurse the sick and wounded and instructed us to place them among some of our relief detachments. The American nurses have been working in the Hiroshima Reserve Hospital and on some hospital ships for a few months and sailed for their homes recently with Mrs. McGee.

At the close of this statement, we take great pleasure in adding that donations in various forms from every part of the world and from rich and poor have ever been flowing into the coffers of our Society. We have never failed to appropriate these gifts to our relief funds in compliance with the donors’ wishes.

We shall be always grateful for these practical expressions of sympathy and generosity which are extended to both belligerents, for whose comfort and relief, when sick and wounded, we are most earnestly praying and devoting ourselves. May Providence help our cause.

Since the issue of our last report on the Red Cross work, much progress has been made in all the different ways of alleviating the sufferings of the war-victims, seventeen Relief detachments on hospital ships and twenty-two on land being dispatched in addition to those which had previously been in service since the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese war. The following are the details of the institutions in which our Relief detachments are at present working:

In addition to such institutions, there are thirteen agencies at home and one at the front established by the Headquarters of the Society in order to facilitate the management of the whole Relief detachments at home and abroad, numbering 152 Relief detachments in all; and of Relief stations established in such ports and railway stations as are convenient and necessary for giving rest and refreshment to the sick and wounded on their homeward way and also medical treatment in cases of emergency, to say nothing of renewing bandages. These are worked voluntarily by the members of the branches of the Red Cross Society of Japan, surgeons, nurses and the members of the Ladies’ Volunteer Nursing Association.

The nurses of both sexes, dispatched up to date, number in all over 4,700, five Relief detachments out of which have been formed and placed entirely in the Russian prisoners’ hospitals and stations. The approximate amount of the expense for the work up to the end of this year is estimated to be as much as 5,160,000 Yen.

The members of the Ladies’ Volunteer Nursing Association of the Red Cross Society of Japan have constantly and strenuously rendered their services ever since the outbreak of the war in making bandages and caps for the patients, in looking after them at the relief stations, which we have already mentioned, in visiting them at the hospitals,in helping them to write to their families at home, in distributing among them books, magazines, newspapers and various things they could collect, in actually nursing the sick and wounded of both belligerents, if necessary, and in various other ways. The members of forty-one branches, together with those of the headquarters of the Association number nearly 10,000, including Princesses, the wives of the Nobility and of diplomatic staffs and other distinguished ladies who have joined.

Their Majesties, the Emperor and the Empress and their Highnesses, the Crown Prince and Princess have always been greatly interested in our relief work. Especially the Empress has graciously encouraged the members in various ways, giving, for instance, money to the Association and visiting it to look at the members making bandages. When she summoned Count Matsugata, the President, to the palace on the 3d of September of last year, the following was graciously spoken to him:—

“It is gratifying that the Red Cross Society of Japan has dispatched a great number of Relief detachments, by whom both Japanese and Russian sick and wounded have been attended. We hope you will encourage these detachments in their work and that the relief work, true to the principle of philanthropy, will be thoroughly accomplished by them.”

Again, on the 4th of March of this year when Baron Ozawa, Vice-President, paid an homage to the Empress previous to his departure from Japan for the front to visit the sufferers officially and to inspect all the Relief detachments there, she spoke to him as follows:—

“Over one year has now passed away since the Red Cross Society has started its relief work. We can imagine how hard it must be for the members of the Relief detachments at the front especially at this coldest season of the year. Still, the care of the sick and wounded concerns my heart evermore. We wish you would convey to the Relief detachments my earnest hope that they will endure all the difficulties and work hard in alleviating the suffering of the patients.”

Indeed, it is not little that the Japanese ladies have done for the prestige of the nation as well as for humanity during the Russo-Japanese war.

Our sister-societies have earnestly and practically extended their sympathy and kindness to us by offering gifts in various forms, which we have gratefully accepted. The following are the details of gifts we have received since last October up to this date. (Gifts from other institutions or individuals are omitted here).

The Red Cross Society of Germany, with the permission of our Government, has kindly sent out Professor Dr. Adolph Henle and Dr. Otto Fittig accompanied by a nurse, Miss Margarethe von Sommogy, to our country to render assistance towards relieving the sufferings of the sick and wounded. Since last March, they have been working at a military branch hospital in Sendagaya, Tokyo, in co-operation with our own surgeons and nurses.

A party of American nurses under Mrs. McGee mentioned briefly in our last report, sailing from Seattle, Washington, U.S.A., on the 3d of March, arrived in Yokohama on the 22d of April, 1904. They commenced work on May 31st in the Hiroshima Reserve hospital where they remained till October 10th, 1904. During that time, they were in turn placed on board hospital ships that had been running between Japan and Manchuria.

In compliance with Mrs. McGee’s request, we sent her out to the Matsuyama Hospital, in which Russian prisoners had been placed and to a naval hospital at Kure; and to some districts in Korea where there were field hospitals.

She then returned to America together with the other nurses, who sailed from Nagasaki on the 21st of October, 1904. We offered to Mrs. McGee and to each one of the nurses the sum of Yen 200.00 as a token of our appreciation of their services.

The following nurses:

Miss Minnie Cooke,Miss Mary Gladwin,Miss Ella King,Miss Elizabeth Kratz,Miss Adelaide Mackereth,Miss Adele Neeb,Miss Sophia Newell,Miss Genevieve Russell,

Miss Minnie Cooke,

Miss Mary Gladwin,

Miss Ella King,

Miss Elizabeth Kratz,

Miss Adelaide Mackereth,

Miss Adele Neeb,

Miss Sophia Newell,

Miss Genevieve Russell,

returned the money to the Society saying that they could not bear to carry any of the Red Cross money with them back to their homes.

As a further mark of our appreciation of their devotedness andearnestness in caring for the sick and wounded on land and sea, we invited the nurses to join the Society as Special Members.

(Special membership shall be offered to those who have rendered distinguished services or made a donation of not less than 200 Yen, to the Society.)

Miss Cooke, Miss King, Miss Mackereth and Miss Russell have made a subscription towards the Relief Funds of this Society since they returned home.

Mrs. Richardson, an English lady, worked in the hospitals in Tokyo and Hiroshima for about one year and half, arriving in Japan in April, 1904, and leaving Yokohama for England on the 15th of July, 1905. During this time she worked entirely at her own expense.

She made visits to the military hospitals in Nagoya, Osaka, Kokura, Kumamoto, Matsuyama, Kure and Sasebo and also to those in Dalny and Port Arthur. In April of this year, she was placed on board hospital ships carrying the sick and wounded from the front to Japan. Her sympathy and kindness had been shown, not only by her actually nursing the war-victims but also by her giving them such things as might interest and comfort them and by more than once making subscriptions towards the Relief Funds of the Society.

Upon her departure from Japan, the Empress received her at the palace. Prince Kan-in, Honorary President of the Red Cross Society of Japan, and Princess Kan-in, Honorary President of the Ladies’ Volunteer Nursing Association, gave her a farewell dinner at their residence.

As the fall of Port Arthur had been expected by all the people, we had sent previously 3,000 suits of patients’ dresses, together with a proper number of blankets and kept them at the nearest possible place to the fort so that we could be ready to provide the Russian wounded with such things when needed. These things, as we thought, have been of a great use. When Baron Ozawa took the opportunity of paying a visit to General Walaschof, the President of the Russian Red Cross Hospital at Port Arthur, the latter not merely expressed his high appreciation of what had been done by our Society (offering an honorable medal to Baron Ozawa and also one to Count Matsugata, the President), but also asked him if the Red Cross Society of Japan would take over the hospital from the Russian Red Cross Society. Baron Ozawa, however, refused the offer only accepting the medal conferred upon him.

At the close of this account, we take great pleasure in adding that donations, in various shapes from every part of the world and from rich and poor, annual subscriptions and the number of members have ever been increasing. The members of the Society numbering in all 1,035,000, include Japanese and foreigners in China, Korea, Hawaii,and in other foreign countries. Nevertheless, the expenditure we have had to defray for the Relief work increases to an amount those outside can hardly imagine. We have been trying to the utmost of our power to perform our duty of caring for the helpless patients of both belligerents ever since the war broke out, only remembering the principles of Humanity and Brotherhood and we will do so more and more hereafter under the guidance of Providence and through the assistance of friends.

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