NAWSA GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE International Woman's Suffrage Alliance — 1933 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 Für Frauenstimmrecht Und Staatbürgerliche 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: Mlena 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 (Romania); Bessie Rischbieth (Australia); Josephine Schein (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, The International Women's News (Jus Suffraigii.) Headquarters: 190, Vauxhall Bridge Road London, S.W.I., England Headquarters Secretary: Katherine Bompas 10th January 1933 My dear Mrs. Catt, I have just heard that there really is [underlined] a possibility that you might make the journey to Europe in the Spring and that we may just begin to hope that you will come to the Alliance Conference in Marseilles. It does seem almost too good to be true, but I write at once to say that if the idea has really crossed your mind, do please give it every encouragement and let me know as soon as you can that we may expect to have the immense pleasure of welcoming you once more to an Alliance Meeting. I am so sure that nothing would be such a great inducement to many of our members to make the journey to Marseilles, which to many of them must be a real sacrifice just now, that I do beg you to remember that and to let us know soon so that we may have time to spread the news. Of course Rosa will want you to speak at the Peace Meeting, equally of course you must be heard at the Suffrage Meeting, and perhaps most of all we shall want your wisdom and experience at the business meetings. But we will nevertheless promise faithfully to be considerate, and if only you come, you shall not be worried to undertake more work that you want to do. I shall look forward to a letter from you very soon containing good news, and with all my good wishes for 1933, I am Yours very sincerely, Margery I. Corbett Ashby. [signature] President. 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 Für Frauenstimmrecht Und Staatbürgerliche 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: Mlena 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 (Romania); Bessie Rischbieth (Australia); Josephine Schein (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, The International Women's News (Jus Suffraigii.) Headquarters: 190, Vauxhall Bridge Road London, S.W.I., England Headquarters Secretary: Katherine Bompas Jacobobrechstreet 67 Amsterdam. My dear Mrs Catt I am waiting by Rosa's bedside. Poor dear, she has had three weeks in bed but the doctor came this morning and found her really better. She hopes to get up for 1/2 hour on Wednesday. For three weeks she has been living on biscuits and an [?] of macaroni so that it will take time to build up her strength. She is quite determined to come to Marseilles but I can't help thinking it would make all the difference to her if you could have carried her off for a scone and tea [?] after the Conference. Mrs. Mauces has been so ill and tho she is better she is nervous and easily upset so that it is a constant strain on poor Rosa's nerves. I think you are the only person who could ease her away, even her Mother would give up to you. But it is unfair of me to press you to come because I want you too badly for Marseilles to take an unbiased attitude. If you ever mean to cross the ocean again I do feel this is the time to choose. Rosa needs you as never before. The alliance has to take decisions of life and death. Norman Davis has done splendidly with the men of the government over here but we have had no really first rate American woman free to explain the new world to women. Dr. Woolley is quite admirable at Geneva but cannot lead the hosts of women effectively. We shall meet in Vearsailles in the middle of the Disarmament discussions & just before the world economic crises. Our subject is the organisation of permanent peace and you would have magnificent scope. Besides the alliance the & peace commission needing you there in the Suffrage Campaign. No one has ever equalled you as a suffrage advocate. It has been terribly disappointing how we failed after Rome when Mussolini destroyed all franchise, after Paris where the crashing franc destroyed the effect of our propaganda & later on when we toured Yugoslavia and found all the Mayors so keen on municipal suffrage we had hardly left the country when a coup d'état set up a dictatorship. Perhaps the crises in France make any success impossible but oh dear they do need so much education! I am rather a depressing correspondent I fear but the prospect of returning tonight to Geneva to watch the timid spineless efforts of the statesmen to disarm & [their] the missed opportunities is making me miserable but a healthy rage will probably take the place of misery! It is quite infuriating that I might have come to your conference after all. I have so much enjoyed your play. Rosa gave it me to read. Yours ever, Margery Corbett Ashby January 31, 1933. Mrs. Corbett Ashby, 33, Upper Richmond Road, London, S. @. 15, England. My dear Mrs. Ashby: I received your letter just as I was starting for Washington. My good intention was to make reply the moment I arrived there. Alas, we are having the same epidemic of "flu" that appears to be going around the world and some of the women who were expected to make preparations for the conference, were down in their beds, making it necessary for me to do things which did not belong to me. directly the conference was on and I soon came down with the "flu" myself. I was not able to attend the conference much of the time and I have been confined to my bed ever since I came home. I am better now, but this must account for my tardy reply to your letter. When I read it, I wanted to say "Yes, my dear Mrs. Ashby, I will come right over to that meeting; I will visit all the towns you with; I will make suffrage or peace speeches, or any other kind you may want." But that is not the kind of letter I am writing now. I am now saying that I cannot come over for the Board meeting and I could not make speeches which anyone could understand, even though I did come. If I had some proposal to make for the Alliance which would help you, I would try to make the necessary exertion to come and lay it before you. I have been thinking a good deal about the Alliance. It is in a hard place, I know. If other countries are as bad off as this one is, I am sure it is going to be difficult to get any money for it for some time. there appears to be no one in the entire world who knows what to do for this situation. I am quite confident that many of the proposals made are more harmful than helpful and I am inclined to think that when good times come again, as undoubtedly they will, the people who will have some money in their pockets to give to the Alliance, will not be the same people who have been interested in it before; consequently, they will have other objects to serve. Yet, I Mrs. Ashby, continued. Page 2 realize that the little paper which gathers up the news of the world around concerning women serves an enormously valuable cause at present and we do need its continuance very much. I think you are right in your supposition that women are not receiving their full and just deserts at this time, but I am not at all sure that it is due to any intended oversight. The situations are so difficult in every country and men who are responsible quite naturally turn to other men to find the way out. In this country, I think women are finding themselves and when stability comes back, I think we shall see women seizing a new place and setting a new aim for themselves. It would be a pity if, meantime, there was no central body like the Alliance to direct the work of women and to record it in its paper. On the other hand, here is this great new cause of peace. If there was a really great international movement and organization of women standing for peace, you might have in it all that the Alliance does for women now. Its primary object would be peace, and some minor objects might include the finishing of the suffrage work; that is, we would have the reverse of what has been the aim and object of the Alliance. It would not be difficult to organize a peace association of some sort and get all the women in it, I think. Of course you have the Peace and Freedom League and there are no particular reasons why it should not lead the way in many of the countries of Europe. It lost its standing here during the war. Miss Adams no longer leads it and the young women who do are unpopular with the majority for various reasons. Nevertheless, with cautious planning, a great organization of women might be made. It seems quite evident that the dear men of the world have no intention of disarming, or doing anything which really means no war. The men of our governments, for reasons unknown to me, apparently have no intention of letting war go. It will probably be a long chase before the end comes. You are young, and if you have health, you have many years to work. It is necessary to get young women started now, so that such an organization, if pushed, could replace both the Alliance and the International Council. It is for you to say whether this seems a wise step to take. Were I to be at the meeting in Marseilles, I should want France and Switzerland to answer some sharp questions as to what they are doing and intend to do to secure their vote. When are they going to get it? After all, when these two countries have given the vote, the Alliance will have carried out the aim for which it was established far more completely than any of us in Mrs. Ashby, continued. Page 3 1902 could possibly have thought would take place by 1933. I would like to come over to Marseilles to see you all again and I would like to come with my pockets full of money to help you carry on for another year or two more. I am now retiring from the Committee on the Cause and Cure of War as my working span of years has about come to an end. In the year 1887 I was elected secretary of the Iowa State Suffrage Association. From that date to this, I have held a responsible office in a suffrage organization, local, state, national, international and national again until this present day, which makes forty-six years. There has never been a year when I have not had a responsible suffrage office. The National American Woman Suffrage Association still exists. We keep as still about it as we can, for we do not liked to be asked to do things. Our work is done, but there are some bequests invested in funds which wait for deaths, so we still survive. I shall hope that some time, while I am still here, you may come to the United States again. I am personally grateful to you for all the years of work you have put into the Alliance. You have led it well. I understand better than most folks what it means to you to have lost your mother. She was a wonderful woman and I am sure you will always miss her and never find anyone who can take her place as a loving adviser. Nevertheless, other women have had the same experience, even though their mothers were not so wonderful as yours, and they have had to go on and do their work without them. I suspect that your father is not well now, because he, too, is missing the presence of that wonderful woman who was his wife. I am sure you are worried now that you may lose him too. Try, my dear Mrs. Ashby, not to let it affect your health. These are such dismal times, it is difficult to be cheerful. Very lovingly yours, CCC: HW. TELEPHONE: VICTORIA 0285. TELEGRAMS: VOCORAJTO, LONDON. INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FOR SUFFRAGE AND EQUAL CITIZENSHIP ALLIANCE INTERNATIONALE OUR LE SUFFRAGE ET L'ACTION CIVIQUE ET POLITIQUE DES FEMMES. WELTBUND FÜR FRAUENSTIMMRECHT UND STAATSBÜRGERLICHE 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, Crêts 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 (Uruguary); RUTH MORGAN (U.S.A.); ALISON NEILANS (Great Britain); EUGENIE DE REUSS JANCOULSECU (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 43 Countries. Minimum Affiliation Fee, £2. OFFICIAL MONTHLY ORGAN : ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION 6S. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S NEWS (JUS SUFFRAGII) HEADQUARTERS: 190. VAUXHALL BRIDGE ROAD. LONDON. S.W.1. ENGLAND. HEADQUARTERS SECRETARY: KATHERINE BOMPAS. 1st February 1933 Dear Mrs. Catt, I am not sure that I ought to bother you with introductions, but Mlle Colin one of the Alliance's faithful members, and Member of the Child Welfare Section of the League of Nations has just told me that she is hoping to visit New York at the end of April. As Mlle Colin speaks English well and is a most intelligent and capable person, who would indeed feel it a great privilege to meet you. I venture to present her name to you. Her address is 2 Route de Chêne, Geneva, and if you felt like writing a little note to say that you would like to meet her, I know she would appreciate it. I am also writing to Miss Sherwin and to Miss Morgan, as they may perhaps be able to be of use to her. With all greetings, Yours very sincerely, [*Margery I Corbett Ashby.*] February 31, 1933. Mrs. Corbett Ashby, 33, Upper Richmond Road, London, S.W. 15, England My dear Mrs. Ashby: I have done a great deal of very solemn thinking about you and the Alliance. There are a great many things I do not know. I am not now acquainted with the women leaders of any country in Europe. The people of my generation have passed on and new ones are taking their places; the problems are different and tasks are new, and I do not feel that I altogether understand them. I had not intended coming to Europe again for I have been in rather poor health for some years. I am now seventy-four and while that may not be considered old, I have a good many forms of senility and the worst is that my legs, feet, and hands are out of order and pain me most of the time. I do not go anywhere without someone to accompany me. I do not often go into town to my office and when I do, my friend is at my side. While it is possible that I might be able to go to Europe and get through a trip quite satisfactorily, there is quite as good a chance of not coming through it well. Therefore, when your letter came, urging me to come to Marseilles, I wrote you that I could not go, but when you wrote again and said you really wanted me to come, I began to put a great deal of thought upon it. I have been rather slow about making up my own mind. Up to this time, I have always had my household so arranged that I could leave it and go any place that I deemed necessary. The house was so planned that it could be left satisfactorily, but when I moved to this new place, where I live all the year around, it was my intention never to go away from it. It would not be as easy as formerly to change household arrangements, yet, if it was strictly necessary, I suppose I could make plans that would serve. My friend would go with me and I could get to Marseilles. I have asked myself, however, what good it would do should I attempt this plan. I speak publicly very little. I decline practically all speaking engagements. When the place offered me on a program is a small one and is quite near at home, I sometimes accept, but, even then, I do not do so often. I do not think I could help you much with public speaking in Marseilles and while I could make a short speech, somebody would have to interpret it. I do not think you would find it very helpful. -2- I cannot bring you money for we are as poor as church mice over here. The depression came to Europe first and probably you have gone through the worst of it by this time. We did not get into it until you were all beginning to pull out in Europe and now we are having it just as Europe had it a few years ago. Our taxes are enormous; the appeals for contributions for relief are overwhelming, and it is not so easy to take money for a trip to Europe as once it was. Were I there, I could not promise money for the future work of the Alliance. My day for raising money has gone by and I am aware that England and the United States practically kept the Alliance going from its organization up to the present day. We have received something from other sources, but not much. I would be glad if Miss Sterling could look over the accounts from the beginning and see how much England has given, how much the United States has given, and how much all other countries, together, have given. I think she would discover that the world has rested upon our shoulders. Now we have got to have a time to rest our purses, have we not? I do not see how money can be forthcoming from this country and I believe it is impossible for it to do what it has done before. Therefore, were I to come to Marseilles, I would offer the following advice:- 1. That the Alliance go into a quiescent state, having no headquarters; doing no work with the exception of the publication of an occasional bulletin, giving the news concerning women of all countries. 2. That no immediate conference be held. 3. That a conference be held when and if times become better and that the program at such conference be confined to a discussion of women's usefulness in the world. (I have had letters from many countries that are finding the trend of thought going against them and a good deal of complaint has been made in this country along similar lines. There are very trying times in which men resent women creeping into their places. Perhaps, at such time as the next conference is held, we would find it a suitable period for a dissolution of the Alliance. We might even find the situation such that the women of the world would come to an organized life again and fight for some of the old ideals. Of course the old folks will be gone or so far incapacitated that they cannot be present, but there will always be women of spirit who will see something to do if the need is there.) 4. I would advise that the bulletin be paid for and that it be as cheap as possible; that you keep whatever money you have, so far as you are able to do so, until that conference comes. -3- I do not think you would find this program very helpful and it certainly would indicate a pessimism I would not like to introduce into the conference unless it really was necessary. I have concluded, therefore, to send this information by letter. Miss Morgan and I had a talk over the situation. I propose that we should send a cable, recommending that you postpone the Marseilles meeting, saying that we would send one of our American women at a later date if a postponement could be effected. Thinking it over, however, I concluded it was not quite fair, for I did not see any useful purpose in an American woman, who knew nothing about the Alliance or who had none of its spirit, [xx] going as a mere representative of this country. She could not help you. I have said most of these things to you in a previous letter. It was my conviction that I could do nothing to really assist you which made me give up all expectation of going to Marseilles. If you find that you are not going to have an attendance really worth while, I would recommend that you postpone this meeting and begin over again by and by. Do not get discouraged, dear friend. You have been faithful and helpful and I seem to see a conference of earnest women sitting down together once more to consider their place in the world. Let us keep the gate open, if we can. Lovingly. CCC: HW. COPY February 21, 1932 Mrs. Corbett Ashby. 33, Upper Richmond Road. London, S.W. 15, England. My dear Mrs. Ashby: I have done a great deal of very solemn thinking about you and the Alliance. There are a great many things I do not know. I am not now acquainted with the women leaders of any country in Europe. The people of my generation have passed on and new ones are taking their places; the problems are different; the tasks are new, and I do not feel that I altogether understand them. I had not intended coming to Europe again for I have been in rather poor health for some years. I am now seventy-four and while that may not be considered old, I have a good many forms of senility and the worst is that my legs, feet, and hands are out of order and pain me most of the time. I do not go anywhere without someone to accompany me. I do not often go into town to my office and when I do, my friend is at my side. While it is possible that I might be able to go to Europe and get through a trip quite satisfactorily, there is quite as good a chance of not coming through it well. Therefore, when your letter came, urging me to come to Marseilles, I wrote you that I could not go, but when you wrote again and said you really wanted me to come, I began to put a great deal of thought upon it. I have been rather slow about making up my own mind. Up to this time, I have always had my household so arranged that I could leave it and go any place that I deemed necessary. The house was so planned that it could be left satisfactorily, but when I moved to this new place, where I live all the year around, it was my intention never to go away from it. It would not be as easy as formerly to change household arrangements, yet, if it was strictly necessary, I suppose I could make plans that would serve. My friend would go with me and I could get to Marseilles. I have asked myself, however, what good it would do should I attempt this plan. I speak publicly very little. I decline practically all speaking engagements. When the place offered me on a program is a small one and is quite near at home, I some times accept, but, even then, I do not do so often. I do not think I could help you much with public speaking in Marseilles and while I could make a short speech, somebody would have to interpret it. I do not think you would find it very helpful. 2 I cannot bring you money for we are as poor as church mice over here. The depression came to Europe first and probably you have got through the worst of it by this time. We did not get into it until you were all beginning to pull out in Europe and now we are having it just as Europe had it a few years ago. Our taxes are enormous; the appeals for contributions for relief are overwhelming, and it is not so easy to take money for a trip to Europe as it once was. Were I there, I could not promise money for the future work of the Alliance. My day for raising money has gone by and I am aware that England and the United States practically kept the Alliance going from its organization up to the present day. We have received something from other sources, but not much. I would be glad if Miss Sterling could look over the accounts from the beginning and see how much England has given, how much the United States has given, and how much all the other countries, together, have given. I think she would discover that the world has rested upon our shoulders. Now we have got to have a time to rest our purses, have we not? I do not see how money can be forthcoming from this country and I believe it is impossible for it to do what it has done before. Therefore, were I to come to Marseilles, I would offer the following advice:- 1. That the Alliance go into a quiescent state, having no headquarters; doing no work with the exception of the publication of an occasional bulletin, giving the news concerning women of all countries. 2. That no immediate conference be held. 3. That a conference be held when and if times become better and that the program at such conference be confined to a discussion of women's usefulness in the world. (I have had letters from many countries that are finding the trend of thought going against them and a good deal of complaint has been made in this country along similar lines. These are very trying times in which men resent women creeping into their places. Perhaps, at such time as the next conference is held, we would find it a suitable period for a dissolution of the Alliance. We might even find the situation such that the women of the world would come to an organized life again and fight for some of the old ideals. Of course the old folks will be gone or so far incapacitated that they cannot be present, but there will always be women of spirit who will see something to do if the need is there.) 4. I would advise that the bulletin be paid for and that it be as cheap as possible; that you keep whatever money you have, so far as you are able to do so, until that conference comes. 3 I do not think you would find this program very helpful and it certainly would indicate a pessimism I would not like to introduce into the conference unless it really was necessary. I have concluded, therefore, to send this information by letter. Miss Morgan and I had a talk over the situation. I proposed that we should send a cable, recommending that you postpone the Marseilles meeting, saying that we would send one of our American women at a later date if a postponement could be effected. Thinking it over, however, I concluded that it was not quite fair, for I did not see any useful purpose in an American woman, who knew nothing about the Alliance or who had had none of its spirit, going as a mere representative of this country. She could not help you. I have said most of these things to you in a previous letter. It was my conviction that I could do nothing to really assist you which made me give up all expectation of going to Marseilles. If you find that you are not going to have an attendance really worth while, I would recommend that you postpone this meeting and begin over again by and by. Do not get discouraged, dear friend. You have been faithful and helpful and I seem to see a conference of earnest women sitting down together once more to consider their place in the world. Let us keep the gate open, if we can. Lovingly, CCC: HW. March 29, 1934. My dear Mrs. Meller, I hope you will excuse me for not having acknowledged the receipt of your record upon the occasion of my birthday. I was obliged to go immediately to Washington and there was no time to acknowledge the many personal letters and gifts that had arrived. When I returned, our good friend, Miss Morgan, was quite ill and I was obliged to do more at the office than usual. She kept growing weaker and we were much distressed about her condition. Meanwhile, there was so much to do at the office that I was not able to attend to my private affairs. All too soon, Miss Morgan passed away. It was a cancer -- that terrible menace in every land. I do hope they will find the cause and cure for it before long. I thank you most cordially for your record. It makes a real program when all of them are given at one time. I think of you very often and wonder how things are going in Hungary -- none too well, I dare say, but so it is all the way around the world. We hear there are rumors of war in Europe, in South America, and in Asia, and everybody is frightened of what is coming. I should think these men of ours, when looking about and seeing the effects of the last war, would try to do their best to prevent another. They do no seem to want to do it in this country. They do no want to go to war, but they think it is unavoidable. It is horrible. Well, My dear Mrs. Meller, may you live long and prosper some day, if not now. Prosperity is something more than money. I do not see the Schwimmers often, but when last I saw them, they were both looking well. Very lovingly yours, C.C.C. Mrs. Eugenie M. Meller Budapest, I. Varesmajor -u-21 Hotel Beau Rivage, Geneva, February 27th, 1933 My dear Mrs Catt, Your letter has raised so big a problem that I have hesitated to answer it, The vision of a world's peace organisation of women is an inspiring one, but from this end it seems impossible that this moment to create a wide organisation because we have reached a further stage. We have passed the stage of education in general principles and are facing day by day and, almost hour by hour, the political problems involved in world organisation for peace. I am as convinced as you that there is a solidarity among women of all lands in a vivid passionate desire for peace, but the women leaders overe here realise that, if they are to help, they must have ready answers to practical questions. That is why I feel that the only way to build up a world peace movement is to build on the excellent foundations of the present Disarmament Committee. Here we have what appear to me the two requisites. . Firstly we have all the women's peace movements working together. They are represented here on any urgent occasion by their political peace experts, who so far have been able to agree on a definite pronouncement on the particular difficulties, which seem at any moment to be threatening world peace. I hope you agree that the statements so far issued have been really valuable and show a definite advance in agreement. Secondly we leave each organisation free to do its own work in its own way. The Women's International League for example can continue their advanced peace work for immediate and total disarmament. The International Council Council of Women can pass vague resolutions of an educational kind. We, in the committee, hold back the former and drag on the latter. Women really agree about peace when it comes to practical adjustments very little better than men do and therefore I believe the wide and rich diversity of the present efforts are all to the good as long as they continue to be coordinated by the Disarmament Committee and a concerted push given. If this work is to continue we must continue our centre here and use it more and more. We need not confine it strictly to 'disarmament' but include as well the question of the organisation of peace. For instance today we decided to send to our organisations a memorandum on the abolition of naval and military aviation and on the embargo on the export of arms to countries which have broken their engagments under the Covenant of the League or other treaties. We have talked over the possibility of keeping the centre going. For the last three months the sale of postcards has covered our expenditure, but we have the office on a monthly tenure only at a very low rent. We could probably hire the rooms for a year or so at the somewhat higher rent than the present one, but much less than the market price last year. The Disarmament Committee would take over the liability until this conference ended and then we must take a decision as to keeping a permanent woman's centre here, perhaps as the seat of the Liaison Committee, strengthened by the inclusion of the organisations which have worked together for disarmament. Each organisation would subscribe to the upkeep, so that any of its members would have the privilege of membership and use it as a centre. The Professional and Business -2- Business women could be in occupation and provide a general secretary, as they [alone] want to have a headquarters in Geneva [& lose their present quarters in July the other organisations are wed to their present quarters.] As regards the rest of your letter, I feel so strongly that the Alliance work for peace depends very much on its existence as a feminist organisation. By being first of all feminist we can reach large circles of women who would not directly join a pacifist society. Secondly we are theonly feminist organisation with a wide programme and now, when such reaction against women and their work is sweeping through all countries we seem desperately needed, quite as much by the enfranchised as by the unenfranchised countries. The International Council is taking up the question of married women's work at Stockholm in June, but I know some councils will protest against this terrible propagandist attitude! If it really fails to give a lead in such a question we are left with a clear field of work, wider than that occupied by the Open Door Council. At Marseilles in addition to the most vital peace questions, we are publicly, or semipublically discussing the freedom of the married woman to work and the effect on women in managerial positions of the decision of the Court of Justice on the Night Work Convention. Then we also deal with the remarkable report on traffic in women, the outcome of the enquiry in the Far East, with its moral laid down for us all, that it is the regulated houses of illfame, which create and keep the traffic alive. To get this across in the worst seaport of a regulationist country by invitation of the local women is a grand piece of work. There is a room and work for the Alliance if we can keep going, and honestly I do no think there is any room for a new for a new peace organisation, at any rate in Europe, except by making the temporary Disarmament Committee into a permanent headquarters for women. As regards suffrage for women in France, I am afraid the growing and fashionable distrust of parliamentary government is largely responsible for the lack of success. Yours very sincerely, Margery Corbett Ashby Mrs Chapman Catt 120 Paine Avenue, New Rochelle U.S.A. Budapest, I.Varosmajor-u.21. December 20th 1933. Dear Miss Morgan, There are explanations but no excuse for being late and out of order so I shall just crave for your pardon. His Master's Voice does not make special records here in Budapest and I happened to hear but yesterday of a firm that makes records, though inferior ones, so I arranged to go there now. Will you kindly and in spite of this retard make dispositions that the gramophone record I send off a the same time as this letter be registered and sounded with the others? It is too late now to write to Miss Manus to whom I beg you to remember me kindly. Thanking you in advance and assuring you of my unchanging devotion to our common cause, yours sincerely Eugenie Miskolczy Meller Miss Ruth Morgan 1622, Grand Central Terminal Building NEW - YORK CITY Eugenie Miskolczy Meller Budapest Best beloved Madam President! In the name of the Hungarian Auxiliary of the Women's International Alliance for Suffrage and Equal Citizenship, the Feministak Egyesulete that is also the Hungarian Section of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom I have the honour to transmit our warmest and sincerest congratulations and best wishes for a happy return of your birthday. Twentynine years ago, a few months after you founded the International Suffrage Alliance, with the leadership or our lamented Vilma Glucklich and our wonderful Rozsika Schwimmer, Feministak Egyesulete adhered to your glorious work that will always remain a splendid example that we strive to follow relentlessly so long as our feeble forces last. Your kindly repeated visits to Hungary will be always gratefully remembered by us and felt as the proud and outstanding days of our movement. Looking back to the International Suffrage Congress in Budapest you presided over with so much dignity, charm and ability it seems to us now just a fairy-tale that we can never forget. We wish to thank you for your untiring and world-conquering work for equal rights of women and peace and we all hope that you will continue with unchanged vigor and genious that is such an inspiration to your followers all over this globe. Permit me now as a finish to cheer you heartily in my mother tongue: "Isten eltesse szeretett nemzetkozi elnokunet, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt-et, Éljen, éljen éljen!" I enclose this sheet, of which I am going to read our message in case anything should happen to the record. Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.