NAWSA GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE International Woman's Suffrage Alliance - 1932 Dec 12 1932 My Dear Mrs Catt, My Christmas greetings are late as usual but perhaps my New Year ones are in time. You certainly have my warmest good wishes for health happiness and success in the New Year of 1933. Is it any use confiding in you that I do long for you to come over this year? We need you so badly in two directions, peace and the alliance. I was expecting to go to Geneva at the end of November but was told to wait until the Germans went back. Todays news seems more hopeful but I dread to find that the "Christmas" box is all but empty of any real achievement. Our [men?] [timid?] & without vision or enthusiasm, perhaps they will be pushed or tugged into some useful concrete plan by fear of worse disasters. There is little to be seen on the surface in the south of England but in the midlands & the north the poverty, distress & unrest are great even among our well disciplined peaceful folk. As to the alliance, I do so long for you to be at Marseilles in March. We have an excellent standing with the League, our women on the board & in the national association are the most enterprizing and intelligent. It seems a terrible pity to lose the organisation just now when the attacks on womens right to work is everywhere challenged. I think we may have to reduce our programme but I trust we can go on at least in a skeleton form so as to develop as needed. You were in at the birth & if we cannot get the necessary support I should still be grateful if you could help wind it up with dignity. The funeral will be due to our success in so many countries. I write from the Woodgate where fathers health is giving us much anxiety. He seems progressing very slowly in one direction but getting listless weak & depressed. What a [time?] for me if I could see you Yours affectionately Margery Corbett Ashby 120 Paine Avenue New Rochelle New York January 8, 1932. Mrs. Marjory Corbett Ashby, 23 Upper Richmond Road, London, S.W. 15, England. My dear Mrs. Ashby: I have no words to really express my great joy in your recovered health. I hope you are as good as new. If you are not, do save your precious self and keep on growing stronger until you have thoroughly "come back". You are young and that is in your favor. We have missed you so much. I have been more restrained than you can know in keeping myself silent by not writing you. I know what a flood of letters means to one who ought to have none. I congratulate you a little on being a proxy member of the delegation at Geneva. I am afraid it will only be enough to keep you from doing what you want to do for the Alliance. However, I am very glad you got that far. We are very much pleased over the fact that we have an "honest to goodness" delegate, Miss Mary E. Woolley. You will like her. She is a fine type of woman who has been for thirty-one years the President of Mr. Holyoke College. Our delegation is very satisfactory to us who believe in peace and we believe it stands ready to do something good; however, we do not think it intends to be an aggressive leader. The situation in Japan is a discouraging fact to those who want to make nice little treaties. I enclose a little picture so that you may see just how you looked in the American press. If you do look like that, you are this. Rosa writes me that Mr. Henderson is rather stupid and stubborn about the presentation of the petitions, for which I am sorry. I am sure you can persuade him to do better. -2- They have written from Geneva that thir budget for the Women's Disarmament Conference is $75,000. They have asked us to make a Dollar Drive, but no organization will have a Dollar Drive. I have not found anyone who has any money to give. Of course, all Europeans think that times are very bad there, but they think that this is a very rich country. As a matter of fact, we have so many unemployed and charity eaters, that we are being driven to the wall to help all these people. I think the budget is ridiculous and I do not think they are going to get a great deal. There might be a ncie, rich woman, somewhere, who would give them a big "slice", but we do not know any such woman. We shall try to send something. It seems to me that an International Conference is a wholly different thing from a National one. The constituents of the International body are government appointees and they get their orders from home. If a question arises which is controversial, they send home for advice. They do not yield to meetings held in halls or publicity which does not quite get the question stated right. I think it will be terrible if these women attempt a speaking campaign to influence that Conference. I do not think it is the way to work. We are all shocked by it. Blessings on you, dear girl. Very lovingly yours, Chairman. Telephone: Victoria 0285 Telegrams: Vocorajto, London International Alliance of Women for Suffrage and Equal Citizenship. Alliance Internationale Pour Le Suffrage et L'Action Civique et Politique des Femmes. Weltbund fur Frauenstimmrecht und Staatburgerliche Frauenarbeit. Hon. President and Founder: Carrie Chapman Catt, Board: President: Margery I. Corbett, Ashby, 33, Upper Richmond Road, London, S.W.15, England. 1st Vice-President: Adele Schreiber; (Germany). 2nd Vice-President: Rosa Manus (Holland). Vice-Presidents: Germaine Malaterre-Sellier (France); Frantiska Plaminkova (Czecho-Slovakia). Corresponding Secretary: Emilie Gourd, Crets de Pregny, Geneva, Switzerland. Assistant Secretary: Milena Atanatskovitch (Jugoslavia) Treasurer: Frances M. Sterling (England). Members: Hoda Charaoui (Egypt); Suzanne Grinberg-Aupourrain (France); Ingeborg Hansen (Denmark); Paulina Luisi (Uruguay); Ruth Morgan (U.S.A.); Alison Neilans (Great Britain); Eugenie de Reuss Jancoulescu (Roumania); Bessie Rischbieth (Australia); Josephine Schain (U.S.A.); La Marquesa del Ter (Spain); Avra Theodoropoulos (Greece); Dorothee von Velsen (Germany); Ingeborg Walin (Sweden). Auxiliaries in 44 Countries Minimum Affiliation Fee, [pound symbol] 2 Official Monthly Organ: Annual Subscription, 6s. Headquarters: The International Women's News 190, Vauxhall Bridge Road. (jus suffragii.) London, S.W.I. England Headquarters Secretary: Katherine Bompas. Twelfth Congress: Athens, April 17-23, 1932. 25th January 1932 Dear Mrs Catt, Thank you so very much for your letter of good wishes. Please accept my very warmest congratulations that the United States have made Dr. Woolley a full delegate. The women's organisations here pressed for me to be a full delegate, but as all the other members of our delegation are Cabinet Ministers and as we have no woman Cabinet Minister it is perhaps only natural that Cabinet Ministers should take precedence. As I have been a colleague of Sir John Simon for many years, I hope that apart from my title I may be able to be of real use. I hope that my being officially in the delegation will add rather than take away from my usefulness to the women's organisations, as they will have in me a channel of communication and of private influence which in the pressure of business may be quite useful to them. Miss Courtney and I had a very successful interview with Mr. Henderson as regards his personal views. As Chairman of the Conference he is anxious that our petition should have the greatest possible publicity. He has already made his views quite clear to the Secretarist and will be equally emphatic to the Committee which will have charge of procedure. Almost the first act of the Conference will be to set up this Committee, on which it is sure the great powers will be represented. I hope Dr. Woolley will convince your representative that is is essential that the women's petition should be presented with a speech and in a Plenary Session. Sir John seems favourable and understands the point, and the Committee in Geneva is doing its best with the other likely members of the Committee. As regards the budget, which is as you say ridiculously high, we were asked to authorise is as a draft budget in order to impress certain possible donors who would not give to the usual economical budgets of women's organisations. -2- I have not been able to leave for Geneva as early as I hoped owing to my mother's very serious illness. I shall be going now on Saturday and shall be able to work over with Rosa the details which she has already so well in hand. It will take us all our time to keep the women steady when once the practical difficulties come forward for discussion, women being quite as nationalist as men. Your letter regarding the U.S.A. delegation confirms the reports that have reached us. I am sorry that your delegation is not likely to take a strong line, but perhaps when the members reach Europe they will be able to inform you Government of the possible hopeful action. I wish you could have come over yourself as your knowledge would have been invaluable. I have meant to write to you so often, but during these last three months I have found increasing difficulty owing to the fact that I had to be as much with mother as I possibly could. Luckily she is very pleased at this opportunity of work and is glad to let me go. Do take care of yourself - we shall need your help as badly, since this can be but the first step in a long and painful progress towards real disarmament. Yours affectionately, Margery I Corbett Ashby Telephone: Victoria 0285 Telegrams: Vocorajto, London International Alliance of Women for Suffrage and Equal Citizenship. Alliance Internationale Pour Le Suffrage et L'Action Civique et Politique des Femmes. Weltbund fur Frauenstimmrecht und Staatburgerliche Frauenarbeit. Hon. President and Founder: Carrie Chapman Catt, Board: President: Margery I. Corbett, Ashby, 33, Upper Richmond Road, London, S.W.15, England. 1st Vice-President: Adele Schreiber; (Germany). 2nd Vice-President: Rosa Manus (Holland). Vice-Presidents: Germaine Malaterre-Sellier (France); Frantiska Plaminkova (Czecho-Slovakia). Corresponding Secretary: Emilie Gourd, Crets de Pregny, Geneva, Switzerland. Assistant Secretary: Milena Atanatskovitch (Jugoslavia) Treasurer: Frances M. Sterling (England). Members: Hoda Charaoui (Egypt); Suzanne Grinberg-Aupourrain (France); Ingeborg Hansen (Denmark); Paulina Luisi (Uruguay); Ruth Morgan (U.S.A.); Alison Neilans (Great Britain); Eugenie de Reuss Jancoulescu (Roumania); Bessie Rischbieth (Australia); Josephine Schain (U.S.A.); La Marquesa del Ter (Spain); Avra Theodoropoulos (Greece); Dorothee von Velsen (Germany); Ingeborg Walin (Sweden). Auxiliaries in 44 Countries Minimum Affiliation Fee, £2 OFFICIAL MONTHLY ORGAN: ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION, 6S. HEADQUARTERS: THE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S NEWS 190, VAUXHALL BRIDGE ROAD. (JUS SUFFRAGII.) LONDON, S.W.I. ENGLAND Headquarters Secretary: Katherine Bompas. 5th November 1932 My dear Mrs. Catt, I have just received a letter from Mrs. Craig Miller giving me the welcome news that on behalf of the National League of Women Voters she has succeeded in collecting the sum of $200 for the Alliance. In telling me that you are the one person who, in spite of hard times, has sent your former contribution in full, she says that you sent it with your love to the Alliance. So I feel that I must write this little note to send the Alliance love to you and its warmest thanks that you are still thinking of us and helping us. How I wish that you would think of coming to our meeting in Marseilles in the Spring to give us your advice as to the future. It is so difficult to know just what we can and should do, though we feel the the women's movement is needed perhaps more than ever if only we can find just the right direction for our efforts. With all our thanks and most cordial greetings, Yours very sincerely, Frances M Sterling Treasurer Telephone: Victoria 0285 Telegrams: Vocorajto, London International Alliance of Women for Suffrage and Equal Citizenship. Alliance Internationale Pour Le Suffrage et L'Action Civique et Politique des Femmes. Weltbund fur Frauenstimmrecht und Staatburgerliche Frauenarbeit. Hon. President and Founder: Carrie Chapman Catt, Board: President: Margery I. Corbett, Ashby, 33, Upper Richmond Road, London, S.W.15, England. 1st Vice-President: Adele Schreiber; (Germany). 2nd Vice-President: Rosa Manus (Holland). Vice-Presidents: Germaine Malaterre-Sellier (France); Frantiska Plaminkova (Czecho-Slovakia). Corresponding Secretary: Emilie Gourd, Crets de Pregny, Geneva, Switzerland. Assistant Secretary: Milena Atanatskovitch (Jugoslavia) Treasurer: Frances M. Sterling (England). Members: Hoda Charaoui (Egypt); Suzanne Grinberg-Aupourrain (France); Ingeborg Hansen (Denmark); Paulina Luisi (Uruguay); Ruth Morgan (U.S.A.); Alison Neilans (Great Britain); Eugenie de Reuss Jancoulescu (Roumania); Bessie Rischbieth (Australia); Josephine Schain (U.S.A.); La Marquesa del Ter (Spain); Avra Theodoropoulos (Greece); Dorothee von Velsen (Germany); Ingeborg Walin (Sweden). Auxiliaries in 44 Countries Minimum Affiliation Fee, £2 OFFICIAL MONTHLY ORGAN: ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION, 6S. HEADQUARTERS: THE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S NEWS 190, VAUXHALL BRIDGE ROAD. (JUS SUFFRAGII.) LONDON, S.W.I. ENGLAND Headquarters Secretary: Katherine Bompas. 15th November 1932 My dear Mrs Catt, I have the best intentions always about writing, and then dash off to endless committees and have no breathing space for a worthy letter. It is dreadfully disappointing not to come out in January to visit you, and my heart sinks at the prospect of Geneva unless the British Government moves some better resolutions or accepts Hoover's. How I envied Miss Wooley when those proposals were put forwars, and how much I regretted we had not accepted them straight away. Everything looks as black as possible, though Mr. Norman Davies seems to be working overtime in an effort to push us on. What a dreadfully indiscreet letter for a Government delegate to write, but you know that the Government lags far behind the desires of a vast amount of public opinion! I don't really know where to turn for comfort. Mother's death seems harder to bear each week. Father's only sister dies quite suddenly while he was with her in Italy, and he will feel dreadfully alone. Disarmament seems almost hopeless unless we are prepared to meet France and give some kind of mutual guarantee. I have been convinced against my will; no country will give up its own forces unless and until it can rely on the services of its neighbours pledged definitely in advance. How we are to convince the States and Great Britain in time to save us from complete disaster I don't know, but an immense amount of education is being done here. There is more hope, however, since Mr. Baldwin and Sir John Simon made their speeches. The country has approved in a most unmistaken manner of a really bold policy. The press is excellent, and if only we can keep them up to the mark against pressure from the services and the armaments and air firms we may achieve something practical. I go out at the end of the month to Geneva again. The economic situation gets worse and worse, but here in London it shows very little. In the north and Wales it is terrible. Now our best man, Sir Walter Layton, has resigned from the preparatory committee of the Economic Conference, which seems to me quite ominous. -2- Do you approve of the Woman's Disarmament Committee? I have been writing about it to Miss Morgan as follows: "During the September meetings of the Committee in Geneva there were long discussions as to how to find the means to carry on its work. The difficulties of finding support for such a long period of work are obvious, and yet it seems to me that it would be really tragic if this unique piece of work - unique in its importance as well as in the extraordinary spirit of co-operation which it has revealed - should have to cease at the very moment when it may fall to public opinion to make the difference between success and failure for the Disarmament Conference. In order to enable the Committee to continue its existence, each of the member international organisations was asked to guarantee a sum of 500 Swiss Francs for the next three months. Miss Gourd and I representing the Alliance consulted together as to what the Alliance could do, and we felt that in one way or another this sum must be found. Now it seems to us that at this moment there is no work to be done in the cause of peace as important as to try and save the cause of disarmament." I hope that you will feel that this is a fitting object, because, after all, all work for peace will be hopelessly set back if the Disarmament Conference fails. Yours affectionately Margery Corbett Ashby Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.