WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM
Dear Miss Bennett:
I hope the enclosed encouraging letters in regard to China may interest you. I hope very much that Miss Pye and Madame [Drevet] may be able to start in September. Miss Balch who is kindly writing this letter for me, and I are making an effort to secure some additional funds toward their expenses and are also recommending to the U.S. Section to appropriate the cost of their expenses across the American continent (or an equivalent amount if they go by a different route).
I have not yet had a reply from Mrs. Clark and have just written her a second time fearing there may have been some miscarriage of letters in these troublous times. I am also writing again to Mrs. Sun Yat Sen as I have had no reply from Southern China.
It seems to me that the statement of this object of the mission is very good and makes the situation much clearer.
I hope that the American Section understood the meaning of the Liège meeting correctly, namely that they were to appoint, and meet the expenses for, an American woman to go to China to make an integral part of the international delegation of the W.I.L. We did not understand that the name was to be referred back to this Executive Committee; neither did we suppose that she could be on any different footing from the others sent.
We thought that we were very fortunate in Mrs. Clark. She had just been visiting her sister near Chicago, who is also active in the W.I.L. She combined the advantage of a rare knowledge of the Chinese situation and of holding our point of view; there is the incidental advantage that she would be so early on the spot and could help prepare the way for those who were to follow. I don't know how it happened that in several communications it is said that she was returning to Japan. This is a slip, as all her affiliations are with China, and her home has been for some years in Peking. [page 2]
Her husband was a graduate of the University of Chicago and almost an adopted son of the head of the Philosophical Department who is an intimate friend of mine. He is a liberal in the best sense of the word.
Such an international undertaking almost inevitably has its complications and I very much appreciate all that you have done toward securing successful cooperation.
Always devotedly yours.
(Signed) Jane Addams.
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