Dear Miss Addams,
There is such a long time since I wrote to you. My time was last autumn filled up with private affairs, my old housekeeper being ill and some other trouble, but I have had a very good time after Christmas.
In early spring I was invited to Norway for lecturing on school-problems and peace in Oslo and [Trondheim]. I had also an [opportunity] to speak in some schools. I enjoyed meeting many [page 2] friends and [seeing] many very beautiful sceneries.
The most important part of our national work has been that the Section in March invited Swedish peace-organizations and other associations which have shown interest of peace to take part in a discussion on the subject "How to cooperate in our work."
We had a very good Conference and a preliminary committee was appointed. In September we are going to meet again.
I know that ↑you↓ have heard from Mrs Kirchhoff of the excellent work of the German and the [Polish] Sections. It has been a great pleasure for me to be allowed to take some part in their work.
You remember that Lida [page 3] Gustava Heymann in Dublin left the Peace mission Committee. But now she is so interested, and I have had a fine correspondence with her and Mrs Kirchhoff. They now hope that we also might be able to have a permanent committee of French and German women, and they have asked me to interest the French section for the question. How fine if we could! I intend to go to Paris in October for the Geneva Assembly of the Peace Bureau, and then I hope also to be able to visit one or two Geneva groups. It is encouraging to see how the work grows.
I have not been able to do anything for our great [plans]: [page 4] Cooperating for Peace-mission and courses for training of workers.
But I have not given up my plans. Carl Heath and other friends are coming to Stockholm in September, and I will try to interest them for these ideas.
I am here in the country together with a friend, who is preparing a Scandinavian ↑F.O.R.↓ Conference. We expect also friends from Estonia and Latvia. The F.O.R. has paid their [journeys]. Just as you did. I am specially glad to meet Miss Abel from Jelgava, Latvia, who is an excellent social worker. Together with her we could do an excellent ↑work↓ of peace mission in the Baltics. She is a dear friend of Mrs Beskow.
We are so happy that we now [page 5] have a Finnish section, and I want to thank you again for what you have done for Finland.
We are also so glad that you have invited Thora Daugaard to U.S.A. I hope that she will be prosperous in her work for a common peace-day. This question will be one of the first we shall discuss in our Committee for [Cooperation]. But it will be very difficult to obtain a result already for Sweden. Things are so different in different parts of the country.
We are also very interested in the proposal of sending delegates to China. Miss Pye will be excellent. I do not know the two others but I hope ↑they↓ will also be very good. I enclose an extract from [page 6] a letter from a prominent professor, who has worked 25 years in China. I am so glad that he has become interested of our ideas. I am sending the same copy to Mrs Doty.
Mrs. Frida Stéenhoff, Stockholm, is going to Gland, and we hope that Dr. Sahlbom will find time to go to the executive meeting at Geneva.
I am sure that you now have had enough of my bad English. Why do not we all speak the same language! I try to learn Esperanto but I am not diligent enough.
Yours affectionately
Matilda Widegren.
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