The Turkish Red Crescent Society has come forward so nobly during the
present war that it has delighted observers by the depth and force of
its vitality. A national institution of humanitarian aims, it had been
recognized as such in the Geneva Conference of 1864—but though it had
worked efficiently in the Russian and Turco-Greek wars of the last
century, it is only lately, through the impulsion given to it some
years ago by Mrs. Rifaat Pasha, wife of the present Turkish Ambassador
in Paris, that its more modern organization and increased capital have
brought it to the front, able to compete in usefulness and resource with
the Red Cross Societies in other countries.
The society is managed by a Central Committee, composed of 30 members,
subject to the approval of a president and to the occasional control of
the government. At present His Excellency Hussein Hilmi Pasha, Ottoman
Ambassador in Vienna, is president of the Red Crescent.
At the beginning of the Turco-Balkan war the Red Crescent Committee
founded three hospitals for the wounded—one numbering over 600 beds—in
the capital of the Empire, and several in the provinces, notably
at Salonica, Adrianople, Uskub, Loule-Bourgas, etc., appointing
well-equipped staffs of nurses and doctors. The necessary surgical
instruments and medical supplies were procured from abroad, and recently
ambulances were ordered from South Bend, Indiana. Four transportable
hospitals of 100 beds each were received from England, and following
the example set by European nations in such cases, the Red Crescent
established field kitchens in the principal camps, which supplied the
harrassed soldiers with soup and bread.
When the cholera broke out among the hapless troops, and they were sent
back to Constantinople for treatment, the society organized three more
new hospitals in the choleraic centers of Hademkeny, San-Stefano, etc.,
and as the sick soon filled to overflowing the epidemic wards hastily
founded in the capital, the Red Crescent had the mosques of the city
opened to the sufferers and supplied them with food, linen and medical
care. It is computed that about 3,000 soldiers were supported in these
improvised hospitals between the beginning of October and the end of
November, 1912, and in this heavy task the Red Crescent was assisted by
its branch missions of Hindoustan, Egypt and England, who took their full
share of the heavy nursing and relief work. Besides the hospitals thus
run, the Red Crescent sent Lt. 7500 in cash to the military sanitary
authorities of Constantinople, as well as very numerous suits of
clothing, articles of bedding and medicinal supplies.
The arrival of the refugees in Constantinople created a new and
tremendous demand for aid. The Red Crescent immediately forwarded another
Lt. 7500 to the prefecture of the town, and housed thousands of the
unfortunate emigrants in old Konaks (palaces) and in temporary sheds.
Committees of investigation and distribution were organized in the chief
provincial centers to which the government sent the refugees and bread or
money doled out.
The Ladies’ Section of the Red Crescent Society has proved most active
on behalf of the patients and refugees. Societies were formed for the
cutting and sewing of linen, of which the hospitals were continually in
need, and the garments made reached the total of 70,000.
The foregoing facts (culled from the columns of the _Jeune Turc_), brief
and incomplete as they are, suffice to show, however, that the energies
of the Red Crescent Society have been severely taxed during the present
terrible happenings, and it is an act of justice as well as one of keen
satisfaction to say that these energies have been not drained but richly
developed by the call made upon them.
In the present emergency the Red Crescent has been generously supported
by the Red Cross Societies of different countries. Sisters of the
Red Cross and the Red Crescent have worked shoulder to shoulder in
alleviating suffering, as shown by the photograph herewith inclosed of
the Imperial Hospital in Nichantache, Constantinople, kindly furnished by
the Phebus Atelier.