June 6th, 1925.
To National Sections.
Dear Friends,
I. Campaign for compulsory arbitration. While I am waiting for some answers to my circular letter of May 22nd, I want to call your special attention to the campaign for compulsory arbitration which our British Section has undertaken in [cooperation] with all the Peace [organizations] united in the National Council for the Prevention of War, which have adopted our Section's suggestions and are circulating the following petition for signature:
"We, the undersigned, with the Sixth Assembly of the League of Nations in view, urge the Government to accept forthwith the principle of arbitration in all international disputes, and as a first step to sign at once the clause for the obligatory submission of certain classes of disputes to the Court of International Justice."
The Labour Party is circulating the same petition to every affiliated [organization] throughout the country.
I beg to suggest that our sections in all those countries whose governments have not signed the Geneva Protocol ought to [organize] a similar campaign at once, so that in September, at the time of the next Assembly of the League of Nations, the governments may be forced by overwhelming public opinion to adopt the most important principle of the Protocol. (Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, [Estonia], France, Greece, Latvia, Poland, Portugal and the Serb-Croat-Slovene State have already signed the Protocol.)
I presume that you have received the special arbitration issue of the British News Sheet; if not, please apply for it to International House, 55 Gower Street, London, W.C.1.
II. Draft appeal to be submitted to the Executive Meeting. I beg to enclose a draft of an appeal to the International Federation of Trade Unions, the issuing of which was proposed at the May meeting of our committee against Scientific Warfare, and which, at the request of the Committee, has been drafted by Frida Perlen in [cooperation] with the Geneva Office. Will you kindly instruct your delegates to the July meeting as to the attitude you wish them to take in this matter.
III. Delegations to forthcoming Conventions. May I remind you that I am anxious to know the names and addresses of your delegates to the following conventions:
i. July 3rd to 6th, London, First International Conference of War Resisters.
ii. July 20th to 27th, Edinburgh, Scotland. First Biennial Meeting of the World Federation of Education Associations. [page 2]
iii. August 1st to 14th, Heidelberg, Germany. Third International Conference of the New Education Fellowship.
iv. August 3rd to 7th, Geneva, Switzerland. Seventeenth International Esperanto Congress.
v. August 24th to 28th, Geneva, Switzerland. First International Congress of Child Welfare.
vi. September 1st to 6th, Paris. International Peace Congress. It has always proved an excellent means of getting into touch with fellow [organizations] to attend their conventions and make them [realize] our own standpoint and our ways of work.
Hoping very much that you will be able to [organize] the campaign for compulsory arbitration and at the same time make use of it for propaganda amongst individuals, I amSincerely yours,
Enclosure: Draft of appeal to the I.F.T.U.
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