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The founding of the red cross. In 1859 Henry Dunant was at the battle of Solferino between the Austrians, French and Italians. He saw 40,000 lying dead and dying. There was nobody to help the wounded… Henry described:
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The founding of the red cross • In 1859 Henry Dunant was at the battle of Solferino between the Austrians, French and Italians. He saw 40,000 lying dead and dying. There was nobody to help the wounded… • Henry described: “ it is a battle of man against man. Both sides trample over one another, striking each down with the butts of their rifles, shattering the opponents skull...slashing open the enemy’s stomach with the bayonet or the saber...there is no mercy. It is a general slaughter, a battle of wild raging, bloodthirsty animals. Even the wounded defend themselves to the last moment. Those without weapons grab the enemy and tear at his throat with their teeth. It becomes more horrible when the horse troops arrive at a gallop. The iron hooves of the horses crush the dead and wounded. One soldier with gaping wounds has his jaw torn away, another his head smashed in. a third who might have been saved suffers a crushing blow to the chest. the wild neighing of the horses mixes with the curses and shrieks of pain, rage and despair. The horse drawn cannons follow, running over the dead and wounded. Brain matter spurts out of the bursting skulls. Limbs are broken and crushed , bodies torn into formless masses. The earth is literally soaked with blood. The battlefield is covered with the shapeless remains of human beings.” After the battle Henry set off to create a group of people who would not fight for any nation. They would just be there to help any human being of any race, religion or any country. He set up the
RED CRSS SOCIETY Which would save millions and branch off into millions of sub-sections, such as…
The Canadian Red Cross society And wartime issues
Canadian Red Cross Society • The Canadian Red Cross Society was founded in 1876. When the first world war started there were 156 local branches all across Canada, by the end of the first world war there 1303 branches. • The Canadian Red Cross Society was made up entirely of women. They raised money, made clothes, supplied medical items and food. • At Christmas soldiers were pleasantly surprised by finding stockings hanging by their beds. They contained candy, clothes, food and cigarettes all supplied by the Canadian Red Cross. The Halifax explosion greatly stretched the resources of the Canadian Red Cross foundation
Prisoners of war department • After the second battle of Ypres 1500 Canadian soldiers were taken prisoner and the Red Cross set up a Prisoners of war department and delivered parcels to the men in POW camps. • Nearly 500 thousand parcels safely arrived.
Conscription: The Canadian army relied heavily on volunteers to join. Many young men rushed overseas to fight. But the horrors of the war soon changed that. The Canadian army was running out of people in their army and not too many were eager to join. The prime minister had promised he would not introduce conscription but he would have break that promise... He called and election to approve conscription. It was one of the fiercest elections ever. Fighting against conscription: The largest group of people against conscription were the French Canadians, they thought they were fighting for Britain not Canada. Also European settlers were not very amused either. They left Europe to get away from European affairs now they felt they were being dragged back in! War time issues
What the government did: • Prime minister Borden was convinced that conscription was necessary, which means he needed to win the election to justify breaking his promise. First, Borden asked Laurier to join him in a coalition or a union government. Although he was a supporter of the war effort he could not approve conscription. Borden knew that Quebec would oppose him bitterly so he had to speak to English-speaking Liberals. Some Liberals joined him and several Liberals joined the conservatives in another party. They called it The Union Party.
The election • The union party won the election with 153 seats; the liberals had 82. only 20 of those votes were from Quebec. They did not show the true feelings of Quebec. Many other English-speaking Canadians did notwant conscription either. • The conscription aroused many harsh feelings. There were bloody riots in the streets and few conscripted soldiers made into the war before it ended. • Canadians had not been this divided since the execution of Louis Riel in 1885. Borden’s wartime victory cost the nation dearly.
