It is hard to convey to you the sense of rescue which your challenge to war brought to many of us in the United States throughout the dark years of violence and denial.
The United States was an eager participant in the admiration for the valor of France which swept the entire world in 1914. While we shared this, it was difficult for some of us to accept all the assumptions upon which this enthusiasm rested, buttressed as it was by war propaganda and nationalistic passion. [missing line] the message which revealed the "other France" no less gallant and admirable ↑and also brought to light↓ a goodly company, ↑scattered↓ throughout the earth whom war passions had not engulfed. Your clarion message pierced through the sense of division and isolation which had come to seem an insurmountable barrier between ourselves and our fellow men.
[We] ↑You↓ asserted a fellowship for all who would partake of it ↑and↓ you [illegible] to [illegible] people and [illegible] ↑thus↓ made us free citizens of a new world.
Writing as I am not for myself alone but ↑if I may↓ for the many members of the Women's International League, may I ↑will venture to↓ add a word of gratitude for your sympathy with our organization and for the moral support conveyed to us from time to time through your sister, our valued colleague; and may I further express our appreciation of the "winged words" which you have several times written for our Geneva publications.
May we [add] Our gratitude ↑is merged in↓ to that abundant flow which comes to you from all ↑directions.↓ I have met your friends and disciples in India, in Mexico, in China, wherever men are striving to live in comity with all other men and where the desire for universal peace torments them like an unappeased thirst.
↑With every possible good wish for your birthday I beg to remain Dear [Mr Rolland] yours devotedly↓ [page 2]
↑, but a goodly company throughout the earth whom war passions had not engulfed.
our fellow men.↓
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