COPY. <has been sent to Miss Addams & Miss Macmillan.>
NEUTRAL CONFERENCE FOR CONTINUOUS MEDIATION
It is doubtless the conviction of every friend of a durable peace that after the end of this war there will be a rare opportunity to establish an International Organization and to combine with it International Disarmament, or at least to bring them a step nearer. We may cherish the hope that, conscious of the unspeakable misery that wars cause, international reforms of a thorough character will be made either immediately at the peace settlement or at least at a World Conference soon after, in order to prevent the world's being afflicted again by these horrors.
No less there exists in peace circles in all countries the conviction that it will considerably further our common aim, if there is, if possible, at the same place where the official peace negotiations take place, an unofficial World Congress, to propagate the pacifistic wishes. Several different International Organizations have already made their plans known, stating that they intend to organize such an International Unofficial World Congress.
The Neutral Conference at Stockholm will esteem it an honor to cooperate with them to influence the Governments and Peoples in this movement and to further these efforts. Convinced of the necessity that each International Organization will continue independently to exercise its influence on behalf of its principles, the Neutral Conference is nevertheless of the opinion that cooperation, at least common consideration between the different International Organizations is necessary. The Conference is even of the opinion that it will be desirable to hold, as soon as the peace negotiations begin, a common Unofficial World Congress where the wishes of the united pacifists will be drafted in as concrete a form as possible, as a basis for further international and national propaganda during the course of the peace negotiations and the time that will elapse until the future World Conference will come. Weighing the different programs that have been drafted during the war by different International Organizations (a.o. by the International Peace Bureau at Bern, the Central Organization for a Durable Peace, the International Committee of Women for a Durable Peace, several meetings of some groups of the international socialist organizations) and by countless [page 2] national organizations, the Neutral Conference, whose principles, laid down in the Resolution of the Ford Expedition, the Appeal to the Neutral Nations, and the Appeal to the Governments, Parliaments and Peoples of the Belligerent Nations, are in reality essentially the same as those of the above mentioned International Organizations, considers such a cooperation not only desirable but also possible.
Considering this, the Neutral Conference would like to submit the following question to the International Committee of Women for a Durable Peace, the International Socialist Bureau, and the International Peace Bureau, if these Organizations are willing to cooperate together and with the Neutral Conference to organize a common Unofficial World Congress at the beginning of the peace negotiations, to lay down in as concrete a form as possible, the wishes of the united pacifists, and to discuss together the most effective way to propagate them in an international and a national way. It might be desirable, for instance, that a joint delegation stays permanently at the place of the peace negotiations, in order to arrange by continuous common agreement this further propaganda.
If your Organization should be willing to extend your cooperation, the Neutral Conference would also be glad to know if you are not of the opinion that a common commission for the administration of such a Congress should be appointed.
Looking forward to your kind answer, accompanied by every suggestion you may be willing to make, at your earliest convenience, we are,
Louis P. Lochner,
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