The Swiss Red Cross spent (apart from the railway fares) some 13,000 in carrying out this transport. No fewer than 8i,377 persons were conveyed by the Swiss Red Cross, and that without counting the numerous civilians interned and civilians evacuated, who had previously passed through Switzerland, the number of these amounting to several hundred thousands. All these persons travelled through Switzerland.
In April 1919 there were still 5,000 Germans interned in Switzerland. These could only be sent home later, shortly before the home-coming of the prisoners interned in France.
The international action of the Swiss Red Cross extended also to investigations as to prisoners and missing soldiers. From all parts enquiries arrived, relating to the whereabouts of various soldiers. This was a task which properly belonged to the Inter- national Committee at Geneva, specially created for this purpose. In many cases, however, the Swiss Red Cross, thanks to its fortunate and useful communications by reason of the exchange of the interned, could answer these enquiries. With this object a special office was set up in Berne for the interned prisoners of war in Switzerland, and to this all enquiries were to be addressed, whether for interned persons or missing persons.
International Red Cross at Geneva. The following was the share of this well-known institution. When hatred and reprisals on both sides got the upper hand, it issued a series of appeals, first of all in favour of common action in carrying out the task of the Red Cross, next to the belligerents on behalf of the wounded and sick, of the nursing staff, of their supplying necessary wants in accordance with the Convention of Geneva, and of the Hague Convention. Next came protests against the torpedoing of hospital ships and against the bombardment of hospitals on the field, the protection of Red Cross unions, the recognition of the Red Crescent, as to the treatment of prisoners, and the dis- tribution of money collected (about 13,000) to the Red Cross associations of the belligerents, as to the reception of Red Cross sisters in Switzerland for rest and refreshment, missions to visit camps of sick prisoners in Italy, Bulgaria, etc., and prisoners' camps in general, the facilitating of communications between the Red Cross associations of the several belligerents, in favour of the sending home certain categories of war prisoners, against the propaganda bureaux, and against the employment of poisonous gas, etc. That is only an imperfect list of the tasks which the International Red Cross undertook, and which it would take a book to describe in detail. Its influence was not less blessed than that of the Swiss Red Cross, and was of extreme importance for facilitating communications between the belligerents. It is worth mentioning that the French poet, Romain Rolland, gave half the proceeds of his Nobel prize to Gustave Ador, the president of the International Red Cross in Geneva, for the war prisoners.
Help Given to Other Nations. As early as June 28 1915, Switzerland hearkened to the cry of distress from little Luxem- burg, then occupied by the Germans, and sent flour to help its suffering population. On Oct. 6 of the same year the Luxemburg Minister of State, von Eyschen, came to Berne to arrange for the supply of the necessaries of life to his country through the Swiss " Import Trust." The principality of Liechtenstein was supplied also with food-stuffs; this led to its closer association with Switzerland, and in 1921 it had Swiss postage stamps and used francs as money. On Dec. 4 1918, shortly after the Armis- tice, Switzerland, in order to alleviate the hunger in the German districts of Austria, sent ten trucks, laden with flour, and nine with rice, to Innsbruck. These supplies were reimbursed by the Entente, as also were the 100 trucks of necessaries of life sent on the 27th of the same month. Switzerland was selected as being able to send supplies quickly. Later, she sent them from the Stocks meant for her own consumption.
But this kind of help was not the only sign of sympathy shown by Switzerland. When the need increased it extended its charity to the reception of badly nourished children belonging to the belligerent states. In Sept. 1916, 760 Belgian children from the occupied territory were long in the canton of Fribourg. In other Swiss cantons such poor children were also received. In the year 919 alone a total of 43,000 foreign children was received in order
to recover from illness. It were principally Belgian, Austrian,
and German children who benefited by this act of charity.
Obituary, 1910-21. Death was especially busy with the great Swiss historians during the decade 1910-20. J. Dierauer (1842 1920); W. Oechsli (1851-1919); Karl Dandliker (1849-1910); B. van Muyden (1852-1912) passed away, as well as Jakob Heierli (1853-1912), the principal authority on prehistoric Switzer- land; Adolf Water (1841-1913), the bibliographer of works of travel in Switzerland; Caspar Decurtins (1855-1916), the great authority on the Romansch dialect; Jean Grellet (1852-1918), the well-known writer on Swiss heraldry; EmilioMotta (1857-1920), the founder and also the editor (for 35 years) of the Bollettino della Smzzera Italiana, which rendered such great service for the history of Italian-speaking Switzerland; and Henri Fazy (1842-1920).
The fine arts also mourned the loss of Ferdinand Hodler (1853- 1918), the merits of whose pictures were so hotly discussed during his lifetime; Max Buri (1868-1915), the delineator of Bernese peasant life; and Eugene Burnand (1850-1921). To these losses we must add Richard Kissling (1848-1919), the famous sculptor; and J. R. Rahn (1841-1912), the historian of Swiss art.
Other Swiss, each eminent in his own way were Theodor Kochef (18411917), the world-famous surgeon; F. Imhoof-Blumer (1838 1920), the celebrated numismatist; F. A. Forel (1841-1912), the physicist and monographer of the Lake of Geneva ; Johannes Coaz (1822-1918), the great authority on Swiss forestry, and a mountain climber whose active career ended in 1850; J. H. Graf (1852-1918), the mathematician and leading authority on old Swiss cartography; and, last but not least, J. H. Dunant (1828-1910), the founder of the International Society of the Red Cross at Geneva.
We must not omit a group of men of letters of the " Suisse Romande " Gaspard Vallette (1865-1911) and Philippe Monnier (1864-1911); and the novelist Edouard Rod (1859-1910).
Our list may be brought to a close with the names of the linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913); and of the Romance scholar, Heinrich Morf (1854-1921).
Miscellaneous. Perhaps the most important event which hap- pened in Switzerland in 1920 was the first meeting of the League of Nations in Geneva, a spot selected, it is said, by President Wilson. In Feb. 1921 Switzerland declined to allow the passage of police troops to guard the peace in the Vilna popular vote.
Switzerland has adopted officially the day of 24 hours, running from midnight to midnight.
Naturally, the possibility of winter sports in Switzerland was excluded (save for the natives) during the war, and they had not quite reached their former vogue even by 1921.
The long war had a most disastrous effect on the Swiss hotel industry. Previously to it far too many big hotels had been built, so that the whole industry was overcapitalized and in a state of great indebtedness to the banks. After the end of the war many hotels were pulled down or diverted to other uses, even in such fre- quented spots as InterlakenandGrindelwald. It has been stated by H. Gurtner that the total capital invested in- the Swiss hotel busi- ness was in 1912 about 45,500,000, or about one-thirtieth of the total amount of the wealth of Switzerland. The same writer puts the total value of the hotels in the Bernese Oberland at about 6,000,000 just before the outbreak of the war.
On May 15 1914 a great national exhibition was opened at Berne. But the speedy outbreak of the war nearly ruined it.
The rate of exchange on London varied much during the war. After the first shock it rose to over 26 francs (par 25), but then sank, and attained its lowest point in June 1918, with 18-83^. It subsequently recovered somewhat, but in Aug. 1921 it stood only at 21-64. Of course this involved great losses for English residents and travellers, while the better value, obtained both in France and Italy, drew many to those lands.
BIBLIOGRAPHY, 1909-21. In 1910 the 6th and final volume of the Dictionnaire Geographique de la Suisse (the first appeared in 1902) was issued at Neuchatel, while in 1918 the same publishers began the publication of the Dictionnaire Historique et Biographique de la Suisse. (Both publications are issued in French and German.) H. Earth gave to the world in 1914-5 the three vols. (going down to the end of 1913) of his marvellous Bibliographie der Schweizer Geschichte. In the domain of constitutional history we have a new and revised edition (1914) of W. Burckhardt's Kommentar der schweiz. Bundesver fas sung von 1874; A. Heusler, Schweiz. Verfas- sungsgeschichte; E. His, Geschichte des neueren Schweiz. Staatsrechts 1798-1848 (vol. i. 1920) ; and W. Raustein, Die schweiz. Halbkantone (1912). For very early Swiss history we have A. Schenk, La Suisse Prehistorique (1912); P. E. Martin, tudes critiques^ sur la Suisse d, Ifcpoque merovingienne, 554-715 (1910); and Marius Besson (now the Bishop of Lausanne and Geneva), L'Art barbare dans I'ancien diocese de Lausanne (1909).
The very best detailed history of the Swiss Confederation is that by J. Dierauer, entitled Geschichte der Schweiz. Eidgenossenschaft, now complete in five vols. and published at Gotha (vols. i and ii., 2nd. ed., 1913; vol. iii., 1907; vol. iv., 1912; and vol. v., 1917) which brings the tale down to 1848; a continuation is in preparation there is also a French translation. E. Gagliardi, Geschichte der, Schweiz (2 vols., 1920), is a new general Swiss history.
