Dear Miss Addams,
I have been meaning to write to you ever since the Freiberg [Committee] meeting, but have found it [illegible] impossible to give any time to W.I.L.P.F. affairs so long as my brother was at home, as we had a great deal of business to get through before he returned to London last week.
You probably heard from Miss Balch that my father was taken suddenly very ill with heart failure, in a London hotel last February. I was with him, fortunately, my mother was in Geneva, taking a holiday & rest for the sake of her heart. My father recovered from the first attack sufficiently to be moved, after a month, to a little house we took in Golders Green, & I nursed him day & night all through the summer months, till he died in August. I had, of course, to give up all [page 2] work outside the 4 walls of his sick-room, as he was quite helpless & needed [illegible] continuous nursing. That was why I could not go to Genoa nor to [illegible] could I go this year to Geneva for the L. of N. Assembly, as after Father died I took mother away to Devonshire for [illegible] complete rest & quiet after the long strain (my Father might have died at any moment all those months), & then she & I and my brother came back to our home here (which we had left last January, thinking to be away for a few weeks only) to wind up all my Father's affairs, & to get the house ready to let for 7 years if we can find a tenant. I did go to Freiberg for the Ex. [Committee] meeting, but had to return home at once. And then I was laid up myself with a tiresome [poisoning] attack, which affected first legs, then my heart & inside generally. I had to stay in bed [nine days] & be very busy directly I was able to be about again -- all this just to explain why I have not written to you yet. I do hope you approve of The Hague Conference plan & that it will be possible for you to come over to Europe for it. The feeling that we must do something try whether women could [written up left margin] not ↑by a united effort,↓ achieve something toward getting the Peace Treaties reconsidered was unanimous & urgent. We feel the need is as great now for this as it was in 1915-18 to try to stop the war. You will have had a full report of our other Freiberg transactions from Miss Balch & Miss Glücklich. It was a very "live" Committee meeting. We wished every day that you were with us.
I hope you are well? With kindest regards to Miss Smith, if she is with you, & Dr. Hamilton, & my affectionate homage to yourself, yrs. v. sincerely
Catherine E. Marshall.
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