CO129-571-10 Sino-Japanese War- Medical Relief Commission of the National Red Cross Society of China 12-9-1938 - 7-10-1938 — Page 19

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THE NATIONAL RED CROSS MEDICAL SERVICE

Until the fall of the Shanghai-Nanking area, the National

Red Cross Society of China maintained no organization for medical

service with the army in the field. The necessity for providing

such service was realized when the hospitals organized by the

National Red Cross in that area fell into enemy hands last November.

Realizing the enormous difficulty of securing personnel, equipment

and transportation at that time for the creation of new Red Cross

hospitals behind the widely extended fighting front, the National

Red Cross took steps to organize a Medical Relief Commission for

the purpose of providing such field service as could be quickly

organized, equipped and set in function. Doctors, nurses, and dressers who had retreated from the hospitals in the occupied

territories to the Nanchang, Changsha and Wuhan regions were

immediately enlisted and formed into units which could be attached

to selected military hospitals on the various fronts.

Since December 1937 the organization of these Red Cross units has been gradually modified so as to be adapted to the conditions of the present war. The provision of adequate medical supplies, and their preparation for use in standard packages, has formed one of the important activities of this Commission. trucks to provide transportation for medical personnel and supplies, and wounded soldiers have been slowly acquired.

Further,

At the present time, 53 Units have been organized for field service and are supplied through 8 Depots, with a skeleton transportation system of 12 motor (60 trucks) and 5 boat (2 launches, 25 junks) Convoys. Units, Depots and Convoys are grouped according to lines of communication or areas, with officers in charge of groups, and the whole service operated as a single corps. In this way, the Red Cross Medical Corps is being developed.

Many