30 MARCH 1929, Page 13

REFUGEES.

The tides of war and revolution in Russia, carrying land- borne infection, and the constant movement of a vast and polyglot host through the ports of the Far East, carrying sea-borne disease, were matters which came directly under Dr. Rajchmann's eye, and an agreement was made with Russia whereby the Commission's doctors were granted diplomatic immunity and were thus able to deliver to the health authorities of that country such necessities as clothes, soap, drugs, vaccines, hospital stores, motor transport, food, and fuel. In Poland also then the League doctors were able to do much to prevent the spread of infection to the remainder of Europe. Then in the autumn of 1922, when the first great stream of refugees from Turkey began pouring into Greece, the resources of the Health Organization were again taxed to their utmost. How many lives it was able to save among the destitute and disease-ridden hordes that arrived by every ship at Salonika and the Piraeus, can never be known or even estimated ; but it is certain that so great an alleviation of human suffering in this most sudden of the migrations of history was only possible owing to the existence of the League of Nations.