My dear Miss Addams:
I short time ago, I received from Miss Balch a copy of a cable which had been received by Miss Wald from Mme. Clara Ragaz as follows:
"WOMEN'S CONFERENCE FOR INTERNATIONAL CONCORD BEGINNING APRIL 14TH INVITES HEARTILY COOPERATION OF AMERICAN WOMEN."
With this came a postal from Mme. Ragaz to Miss Balch herself, telling of an interview with Mrs. Whitehouse, to whom Miss Balch had asked her to get in touch. In her postal she says, "We are trying to arrange at Berne an International Women's Conference for the middle of April. It is meant to be a very modest [sequel] to The Hague Conference. The great difficulty is to obtain the passports for those who would like to join us. We should be very glad of Mrs. Whitehouse's staying here for the Conference, but she says it is not sure that she can. The Amsterdam ladies do not approve of our plan, because they think it cannot be realized on the [scale] we proposed to, and they are quite right. It will not be anything grand, but even if it can only be realized on quite a small scale, it will do some good; for inviting Women of different countries to a discussion in common of the different problems of the reconciliation of the peoples, is one step to the reconciliation."
Miss Balch suggests that the Woman's Peace Party send greetings signed by you personally, and I immediately wrote to all members of the board, the enclosed letter.
Mrs. Mead wrote that she would like to send greetings if she were quite sure the Conference was real Swiss, and not in any way a pro-German. I sent her a copy of Miss Balch's letter, and postal from Mme Ragaz, and she has written that she finds these letters very satisfactory, and is in favor of cabling greetings.
In the meantime, Miss Wald has sent me a copy of the cable which she sent as follows: [page 2]
"SYMPATHETIC GREETINGS. REGRET INABILITY TO JOIN YOU."
(Signed) LILLIAN D. WALD.
Mrs. Leach has also expressed herself as heartily in sympathy with sending a message, and so has Mrs. Post and Mrs. White, chairman of the Committee for Propaganda. I have not received letters from the other members of the board, but as this makes a majority, I will send the cable if you wish me to do so, signed with your name.
Mrs. Leach suggests that we eliminate the cable to an assurance of, friendly greetings and best wishes for the success of their Conference, as the cable censorship is so strict, and unless I hear from you to the contrary, I will cable on Monday April 15th as follows:
"CORDIAL GREETINGS BEST WISHES FOR SUCCESS OF CONFERENCE."
(Signed) -- JANE ADDAMS.
Very sincerely yours,
Executive Secretary.
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