Joseph Thompson Eliott to Jane Addams, September 25, 1919

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Central Offices of the Society of Friends.

DEVONSHIRE HOUSE, 136, BISHOPSGATE,
LONDON, E.C.9.

25.9.19

Dear Miss Addams,

I have now read the valuable report which you and Dr. Hamilton prepared after your visit to Germany, & thank you for it. I want to refer to one statement therein, -- I remember the occasion and think I said something at the time. "There has been no fish since the Armistice when the Blockade provisions prohibited fishing in the North Sea."

I have never been able to find out exactly what took place. Various things were said in England last Spring, and Mrs Buxton tells me that the German Papers devoted some space to it.

The White Papers published by our Government giving the reports by British officers on the Conditions in Germany, refer to the stoppage of the Coasting trade in the Baltic, and also to the difficulties of fishing because of mines, [etc.] but contain a suggestion that any complaint was made to the officers, even at Hamburg, that fishing had been prohibited after the Armistice. When I got to Berlin I made [further?] [page 2] attempts to find out what had happened, and I [enclose] copies of 2 statements which were given me by Fräulein Köpke of the [Auskunft und Hilfstelle]. She obtained them from her father, who lives at Hamburg.

I hope that you had a good voyage home, and do not find yourself altogether overwhelmed by the work arising out of your visit to Germany. We find ourselves very full of openings and calls here, and are struggling with them as best we may. We expect Carolena Wood at any moment.

When we were in Frankfurt we saw Herr Kahn of the Frankfurter Zeitung. One of the things he said to me was, "The hour I spent with Miss Addams was one of the happiest of my life; she was so fair about France and Germany." I am sure that many a man besides him blesses the day when you came to Germany.

With best regards to you and Dr Hamilton

I am yours very [truly]

J. T. Eliott