Our November 1965 issue outlined the main aspects of the Vienna conference from October 2–9, 1965, and it also gave the texts of the resolutions adopted.

The importance of the proceedings and the team spirit which prevailed at the meetings of the three commissions are well known. The constructive work at their sessions never failed to ensure a full attendance by all delegates, and it was accomplished thanks, inter alia, to the valuable contacts established both during sessions and at the several receptions so generously offered by the host to the conference. Upon their return to their own countries, the National Society and government delegates will be able to examine the results achieved and draw conclusions from the relevant texts, particularly from those on the problem of dissemination of the rules of humanitarian law. It is also in this field that the ICRC has an enormous task before it, one which it hopes to complete in time for the next International Conference to be held in Istanbul in 1969. The International Review will revert to this subject in subsequent numbers, with studies on the wide issues involved in Vienna.

Japan is a country where nature is by no means benign and where men are often sorely tried by the violence of the elements; in addition, the configuration and population distribution add further to the difficulties.

We have the honour to inform you of the official recognition on December 2, 1965, by the International Committee of the Red Cross of the Red Cross Society of Niger.

The new Society, founded in 1963, applied for recognition by letter under date of August 30, 1965. The application was accompanied by the Society's Statutes, an Annual Report and by the Decree of September 7, 1965, by which the Red Cross of Niger was recognized as auxiliary to the public authorities.

Prisoners of war. — On December 3, 1965, two representatives of the ICRC, Mr. Roger Du Pasquier (delegate in India) and Mr. Michel Martin (delegate in Pakistan) accompanied by Mr. Jacques Moreillon (assistant delegate in India) and by members of the National Red Cross Societies of India and Pakistan met between the lines for an exchange of parcels for prisoners of war of the two parties in conflict.

On December 23, 1965, took place the now traditional ceremony in the course of which the International Committee of the Red Cross marks its gratitude to members of the staff with twenty years of service to their credit.

The Australian Red Cross has awarded Mr. Léopold Boissier, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross from 1955 until 1964, its Medal of Honour, with citation, the highest distinction granted by this Society, for his work at the head of the Committee at a time when this institution was faced with particularly difficult decisions.