be undertaken by that organization
  for the purpose of providing financial and material support to the
  work of the American National Red Cross, of which latter Miss Clara
  Barton is president.

  The proposal has the President's cordial approbation in view of the
  distinctive position of the American National Red Cross as the sole
  central organization in the United States in affiliation with the
  International Committee of Berne, and through it with the Central
  Red Cross Committees which have been formed in every country which
  has adhered to the Geneva Convention of 1864.

  It is to be remembered that the Geneva Convention itself is largely
  the outgrowth of American initiative. The American Sanitary
  Commission, organized during the first years of the War of the
  Rebellion, proved the efficacy of uniform and concentrated effort to
  bring into play the benevolent influences of the people to aid the
  military authorities in caring for the sick and wounded in war, and
  its conspicuous success attracted attention abroad to such a degree
  that, in obedience to a very general desire in European countries,
  the Swiss Government, in 1863, invited an international conference
  to formulate and adopt a general plan for the amelioration of the
  suffering of the sick and wounded in war. As a result of that
  conference arrangements were perfected for the organization of
  central civil committees in the several countries to supplement the
  work done by the military service of the armies in the field, thus
  creating in nearly all the Continental States organizations similar
  to the American Sanitary Commission. The following year another
  conference was held at Geneva, under the auspices of the
  International Committee, which resulted in the signing of the Geneva
  Convention of 1864, to which the United States is a party. Still
  another conference in 1868 resulted in the additional articles
  extending the principles of the Geneva Convention to naval
  operations, which have been adopted by this 