Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 33 Part 1.djvu/686

F IF TY-EIGHTH CONGRESS. Sess. III. Ch. 23. 1905. 599 CHAP. 23.——An Act To incorporate the American National Red Cross. J¤¤E;¤¤'g9g>4 . Whereas on the twenty-second of August, eighteen hundred and [r¤1>i1e,N0.4.] sixty-four, at Geneva, Switzerland, plenipotentiaries respectively rep— American Nm M resenting Italy, Baden, Belgium, Denmark, S ain, Portugal, France, Bed cross, reinco(i·bo— Prussia, Saxony, and Wurttemberg and th)e Federal Council of ”{?,g;,mm.,_ Switzerland agreed upon ten articles of a treaty or convention for the V°1~ 2% P- 94** purpose of mitigating the evils inseparable from war; of ameliorating the condition of sol iers 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 ado ted for hospitals and ambulances and convoys of sick and wounded and) an arm badge for individuals neutralized; and VN hereas 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 Wh€l’€8S the International Conference of Geneva of eighteen hundred and sixty-three recommended " that there exist in every country a committee whose mission consists in cooperating in times of war with the hospital service of the armies by all means in its power;" and VVhereas 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 umane objects contemplated by said treaty, wit the power to adopt and use the distinctive flag and arm badge specified (y said treaty in article seven, on which shall be the 'sign of ` t e Red ross, for the purpose of cooperating with the "Comit6 , International de Secours aux Militaires lessés’ (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 citv of Washington, District of Columbia, in July eighteen hundred and eighty-one, known as "The American National Association of the Red Cross,” reincorporated April seventeenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, under the laws of the District of Columbia, and reincorporated by Act of Congress in June, nineteen V°1·*”·P·”"- hundred; and Whereas it is believed that the importance of the work demands a repeal of the present charter and a reincorporationof the society under Government supervision: Now, therefore, Be it enacted by the Senate and House ofR'1epresen¢atives of the United Siaztes of America in Om: ress assembled, at Clara Barton, Hilary I¤¤¤¤>¤¤¤¤>¤· A. Herbert. Thomas F. Walsh, Charles C. Glover, Charles J. Bel , · Mabel T. Boardman, George Dewev, William R. Day, Nelson A. Miles, James Tanner, William K. `Van Reypen, John M. Wilson, Simon lVolf, James R. Garfield, Gifford Pinchot, S. W. Woodward, Marv A. Lo n, \Valter Wyman, of Washington, District of Columbia; ~George Shields, of Iissouri; William H. Taft, F. B. Loomis, Samuel Mather, of Ohio; Spencer Trask, Robert C. Ogden, Cleveland H. Dodge, Geor e C. Boldt, William T. \Vardwell, John G. Carlisle, Geor e B. McClellan, Elizabeth Mills Reid, Margaret Carnegie, of New gYork; John H. Converse, Alexander Mackay—Smith, J. Wilkes O”Neill, H. Kirke Porter, of Pennsylvania; Richard Olney, W. Murray Crane, Henry L. Higginson, l ’illiam Draper, Frederick H. Gillett, of Massachusetts; Marshall Field, Robert T. Lincoln, Lambert Tree, of Illinois; A. G. Kaufman, of South Carolina; Alexander W. Terrell, of Texas; George Gray, of Delaware; Redheld Proctor, · of Vermont; John W. Foster, Noble C. Butler., Robert W. Miers, of lndiana: John Sharp lVilliams, of Mississippi; William Alden Smith,