Another example of the suppression of a body working in a normal manner. As soon as they occupied Brussels the Germans began to meddle in the doings of the Directing Committee of the Red Cross Society, and appointed a delegate to the Society. They then tried to force the Red Cross to exceed its duties, which were clearly specified by the international convention known as the _Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armies in the Field_. Neither in the text of the Convention of 1869, nor in that of the Convention of 1906, is there any question of other patients than soldiers wounded during hostilities. Doubtless it is a matter for praise if the Red Cross of each country should extend its action to needs existing in time of peace; in Belgium, for example, the Red Cross has organized ambulances in the International Exhibitions. But it is none the less true that its essential mission, and the only mission foreseen by the International Convention, is to ameliorate the condition of soldiers who are victims of warfare. It was therefore an abuse of the Red Cross to impose other aims upon it; to compel it, for example, to organize "the relief and support of women by means of labour." The Red Cross of Belgium decided, with abundant reason, that it could not in time of war assume novel functions, nor, above all, could it set apart for the same sums of money which were largely derived from private subscriptions entrusted to it for the succour of the wounded; it therefore refused to involve itself. After lengthy negotiations the Governor-General suspended the Belgian managing committee from its functions, and seized the funds. We should mention that the Central Administration of the Red Cross, sitting in Geneva, decided that the Brussels Committee was in the right. Attempting to justify their illegal attitude, the German authorities established a special journal, _La Croix Rouge, Bulletin officiel de la Croix Rouge de Belgique_, printed in Flemish, French, and German. This journal continues to pretend that the Belgian Committee was legally dissolved, as it would not "assist the people in the present melancholy situation."