Conclusion

Abstract

The ICRC’s three main objectives in the Second World War were to provide humanitarian assistance to as many people as it was able; to respond to the conflict’s spread and escalation by extending its operational purview and improving its capabilities; and, finally, to maintain its reputation and right to act, by upholding the sanctity of the Geneva and POW Conventions and adhering to the principles of neutrality and impartiality. The ICRC’s aim in short, was to expand, respond and adapt within the limits of its principles, as it always had, to the changing conditions of war. By contrast, the British Government’s humanitarian policy — the basis upon which its wartime relations with the ICRC were conducted — both lay at the periphery of its concerns and was restricted by the parameters of self-interest and political and strategic considerations. There were inevitable clashes between Whitehall and the ICRC on account of this divergence. The British Government came to depend greatly on the Committee, however, to maintain the health and well-being of the many British subjects who fell into captivity and, in no small part through its contretemps with Whitehall, the ICRC expanded in both ambition and operational purview during the Second World War.