War and Disease. By Ralph H. Major. (Hutchinson. tas. 6d.)
IN this book there is collected a good deal of miscellaneous and disjointed information concerning the sufferings of troops during and after a number of famous victories. The selection and method is rather like what might be expected from a well-informed and well-educated " Old Caspar " whose work was done and who was sitting in the sun before his hospital door! The central figure is rightly that of the shadowy Henri Dunant (1827-1910), one of the great little men of history. This courageous and persistent Swiss banker, by the account that he gave of the barbarities of war in his Souvenirs de Solferino (1862), and by his untiring efforts to draw public attention to the hideous sufferings that such things entail, was the gadfly that stung into activity the International Conference of Red Cross Societies at Geneva in 1863. This led
to the signing, on August zznd, 1864, of the " Geneva Convention." In that document fourteen sovereign States pledged themselves to regard the sick and wounded, as well as the medical staffs and nursing services, as neutrals on the battlefield. Owing to faults of character, either leading to or following on faults of book- keeping, Dunant faded from public notice. When he died at 83 he had long been but a ghost. Nevertheless if it be greatness to seize upon a great idea, to hold it up clearly and constantly and consistently and selflessly before the world, and to persist until it is generally accepted, then Dunant must be accorded the bays of greatness. He deserves, and especially at this time, a better memorial than is here provided. For biography, as Dr. Major rightly says, he provides but poor material. I would suggest that his qualities would make him a suitable and exciting figure in a work of fiction that, in skilful hands, may provide the truth about human character far better than can ever be set forth in biographical form.
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