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Personally I think, that it would be beneficial and conve- nient, if there were a Branch Office of the League Secretariat in the Orient to assist Oriental Red Cross Societies to exchange their experiences, co-operate in the solution of their common problems, and co-ordinate their action in emergency. It is very difficult indeed, j'en sais quelque chose, to find the good way of educating in public health, when one, without own experience, has to lay such a way out, and of course many mistakes, more or less expensive, — and what is worse, probably unnecessary, if one could only have consulted other people's experiences, must be made.
I hope that the Dutch Indies Section will be able to join the Branch and personally I have no doubts in this matter if only a practical and smoothly working organisation of that kind can be set up.
Perhaps Singapore will be the best place to establish this Branch Office, as it is within easy reach of all the countries of the East.
It seems to me, that all the associated Societies or Agen- cies must send to this Office all their reports, all their publi- cations, books and posters, descriptions of their moving pictures, with their prices for sale and for hire, and all ap- plications for these things should be directed to it. The number of officials required in the future, I cannot guess, but provisionally I think, that one secretary with two or three assistants will be sufficient. Of course the reports and the other publications should be translated in English.
As the League knows, the Dutch Indies Section has sug- gested that this Conference should be postponed to the time of meeting of the Conference of the Far Eastern Association of Tropical Medicine, which is to meet at Singapore in September 1923, because the different Red Cross Societies could be represented then by gentlemen attending the Association's meeting, which would be less expensive, and moreover the Red Cross meeting could only profit by the presence of many prominent hygienists and medical
men.
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The Far Eastern Association of Tropical Medicine will hold a meeting every two years, and as popular sanitation and hygiene are among its principal objects, it would seem to be most practical to hold the conferences of the Red Cross at the same place and time as the F. E. A. T. M. I hope, that this suggestion will be accepted.
Now, I am at the end of my report and I am very sorry that I could not submit one, full of splendid actions of our Section, but I have tried to make you understand, why it was so, and I hope, that the details have given, have been interesting enough, to listen to.
I will finish, repeating what I said in the beginning: I hope, that I will bring home from this Congress such advice and such an enthusiasm, that — and now I change it a little-,our delegate to the next Congress (probably in 1925) will be able to show you, how well our Section worked, since the present conference.
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