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The book contained a plea for the establishment of societies in all countries, to be inactive in time of peace, but ready to act in time of war. He envisioned that they would be staffed by medical personnel, who would be neutral. This was a central theme of Dunant’s crusade: the neutrality of the so- cieties and their objective, to care for all military personnel, regardless of which side in the particular conflict they had been fighting for. The combatants would be required to leave these medical personnel unharmed and harassed.
The book was an immediate success. It electrified all those who read it in the capitals of Europe. The first edition was soon exhausted, so a second edition was published in Decem- ber. Dunant received messages from a collection of influen- tial people, Victor Hugo, Ferdinand De Lesseps, still wres- tling with his canal in Egypt, and from the Emperor himself.
But there was opposition. The French high command, all professional warriors, dismissed the book as a menace. Mar- shall Vaillant was provoked to comment that, “the game has lost some of its zest since captured cities were no longer burned and the garrisons slaughtered to the last man.” Advances in the destructive ability of weapons should not, in the eyes of the high command, be mitigated one wit by fancy ideas about bringing succor to the wounded.
Even Florence Nightingale found the proposal objectionable. In her view the proposed societies would take on responsi- bilities which belonged to the governments of the countries involved. She also scorned the idea that the aid proposed was limited to times of war, which, she felt, ought to exist at all times in order to be efficacious. She felt that the British army had, as a result of her own initiatives, established its own hospitals, field dressing stations and nursing staffs and did not need some international organization to lend aid.
In 1863 another 3,000 copies of the book, translated into German, English, Italian and Swedish, were printed and made available to the general public. The cause was taken up by Queen Augusta of Prussia, by Charles Dickens and by many of the Crowned heads of Europe.
The Swiss lawyer, Gustave Moynier, journeyed to see Dunant and recorded his dismay that Dunant appeared not to have any idea how he was going to carry his appeal into practice. Moynier took up Dunant’s cause and persuaded him to accept his concrete plan for the promotion and es- tablishment of the national societies. Moynier arranged for the plan to be discussed at a meeting of the Geneva Society for Public Welfare in February 1863. To Dunant’s mild cha- grin, Moynier seemed to have taken over his enterprise. This was just as well, for Moynier was a capable administrator, while Dunant was an idealistic dreamer.
Moynier chaired the meeting. Present was General Dufour, who had recently quelled a domestic rebellion amongst the Cantons of Switzerland. Dufour had read Un Souvenir and had commended Dunant on his initiative. Also in atten- dance was Dr. Louis Appia, who had invented a stretcher for evacuating the wounded. Appia had been present at Solf- erino and served as a field doctor. Dr. Theodore Maunoir, a physician and close friend of Dr. Appia’s, also attended the meeting. The meeting ended with the appointment of Dufour, Appia, Moynier, Maunoir and Dunant as a special Committee of Five to study Dunant’s proposals.
Dunant was keen to enlist the support of Le Beau Monde. He felt, correctly, that they needed the patron- age of the potentates: the Kings, Queens and princes, not only to lend plausibility to the initiative, but also as a source of financing. General Dufour, in particu- lar, had an appreciation of the lift that such patronage could give to an endeavor that might otherwise thin away into insignificance and oblivion. Though the Committee of Five spent time working on the me- chanics of bringing improved medical aid to the vic- tims of war, they also set on foot what would now be termed an advertising campaign to make their point.
Dunant wrote a report that dwelt on the need to send vol- unteer nurses to the battlefields, on the plan to improve methods of transportation of the wounded, the improve- ment of services in the hospitals and the introduction of innovations for the treatment of sick and wounded sol- diers. It suggested that the Committee should become a permanent international body. Thus was conceived the idea that blossomed to become the International Com- mittee of the Red Cross.
The opening years of the decade of 1860 were witness to a profusion of wars, that lent some immediacy to the Com- mittee’s endeavours. The American Civil War had broken out in 1861.
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