11 SEPTEMBER 1953, Page 29

THE blurb on the dust jacket of this book gives

readers a pretty fair warning : this is the biography of Henri Dunant, the man who founded the Red Cross Society : but it is also a study in adversity. Miss Hart, in the course of this excellent history— shows how the young Dunant, after witness- ing the Battle of Solferino, described its miseries in his Souvenir de Sblferino which, when published, roused the conscience of the public to such an extent that it caused the Society for Public Welfare to be founded. This, in a very short time, became the Red Cross Society. But, unfortunately, as the SoCiety gathered strength, so its control, never firmly in Dunant's hands, passed out of them completely. Yet, late in his life, the wheel turned, and comforts and honours came his way. In fact, the ending of the book is most encouraging.. The sense of depression lifts and one feels that Henri Dunant, throughout his long, unselfish struggle, may have known a fair amount of