SINGAPORE RED CROSS SOCIETY (INCORPORATION) BILL
Parliament of Singapore · 7 March 1973 · 3rd Parliament
Official Report, 7 March 1973, Vol 32, Issue 11 · Open in the reader (summaries, search, filters)
Order for Second Reading read.
3.44 p.m.
The Minister for Health and Home Affairs (Mr Chua Sian Chin): Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move, "That the Bill be now read a Second time." The Singapore Red Cross (Incorporation) Bill when enacted will accord the Singapore Red Cross Society the status of the national Red Cross Society. This will enable it to take its place in the League of Red Cross Societies and be bounded by the International Committee of the Red Cross which administers the Geneva Conventions, on which I spoke a little while earlier.
The Red Cross is dedicated to the prevention and alleviation of human suffering in peace and in war. In peacetime it is concerned with disaster relief. In addition to the Society's local activities in this respect it will, after the Bill is passed, be the national society which will participate in disaster relief operations which may be mounted internationally or regionally by the League of Red Cross Societies. In war-time it will be the agency for the protection of the wounded and sick of the parties in the conflict.
Outside the periods of stress or national disasters, the Society also plays the role of medical auxiliaries to the public health and welfare authorities. Amongst the better known of its services are its ambulance service and assistance at accidents. It is hoped that its new role of a National Society will expand to other fields of activities which supplement the national medical services.
The Bill also reserves to the Society the right to use the Red Cross emblem or title and provides a penalty of $1,000 or six months' imprisonment or both, for the use of the emblem or title by any other person.
Mr Speaker, Sir, I beg to move.
Question put, and agreed to.
Bill accordingly read a Second time and committed to a Committee of the whole House.
The House immediately resolved itself into a Committee on the Bill. - [Mr Chua Sian Chin].
Bill considered in Committee; reported without amendment; read a Third time and passed.
Source: Singapore Parliament Official Report (Hansard) for 7 March 1973. Republished on SGParliament.