Berlin, April 28, 1921.
My dear Miss Balch,
As we understand it, the Congress of the Women's International League will be held in Vienna from July 10 to the 16th. We do not know what plans you have made for the representation of Indian women, or if you have made any. We are writing to inform you of action which we have taken in the matter.
Miss Jane Addams approached the Friends of Freedom for India at 799 Broadway, New York City, asking for the names and addresses of women in India who might form a branch of the league in India, and who might send a deputation to the Vienna Congress. A number of names were sent her. We have now been approached by the Indians in America to try and have Indian women at the Congress -- an Indian delegation entirely independent of the British women.
[Today] we have written to Miss Hirabai Tata, c/o Messrs. Tata & Co., Chapel House, New Broadway, London, E. C., [England], with the request that she cable to India and have a deputation come out. The names suggested to her were:
Mrs. Sarala Devi/ Chowdhurani, Lahore, India
Mrs. [Sarojini] Naidu, Hyderabad, Dekkan, India
Begum Janjeri c/o Mrs. Naidu mentioned above
Mrs. Lila Singh, c/o Grindlay & Co., 11 Hastings St., Calcutta
Miss [Mrinalini] Chattopadhyaya, c/o Madras Labor Union, Madras.
Mrs. Sathianadhan, editor of the Indian Ladies Review, Madras.
Mrs. Nehru, c/[o] Pundit Motilala Nehru, Allahabad, [India].
In case it is impossible to get the women to Vienna in time, we have written to Madame Bhikaiji Rustom Cama, 25, rue de Ponthieu, Paris, who is an Indian woman, a revolutionary exile and a Socialist. She has represented India at a number of Socialist Congresses, and we suggest that you communicate with her and with Miss Tata at once concerning their coming to Vienna. We hope that Madame Cama may come, in any case. You can quite understand that we do not wish British women to speak for the women of India. They are quite incapable of it, aside from the fact that they have recently raised a tremendous fund to present to General Dyer for his services in massacring Indian men, women and children in the Amritsar massacre.
Will you kindly send information concerning the Congress to the Indian women who have been mentioned. Send the information in the English language. Send information in English also to Miss Sobani, Pension Savoy, Kä......Vienna, who is an Indian Mohammedan lady studying in Vienna and who should attend the Congress.
Do not reply to Miss Smedley, but to the Bureau.
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