Your telegram received
Oct 14
Very dear J. A.
I now have received the voluminous & very interesting Geneva minutes & gone carefully over them. It appears to me that
1) we should endorse the arrangement about Miss Heymann.
2) hope that Catherine Marshall & Mrs Larsen will reconsider their resignations (& perhaps that you would write them to that effect) even if their holding on is nominal.
3. Ask that Miss Marshall ↑they↓ be permitted to send a proxy without a vote
4. ask the Ex. Com not to decide every issue of importance in which they differ unless there is a legal quorum. [page 2]
5. state that we think the next Congress should be asked to ratify ex post facto any votes ↑or actions↓ taken when there was no quorum.
Do you understand that there is in any case to be a meeting in the spring? If so I wld go over to it if I can.
If so I think no extra meeting need be called. I will attend it if I possibly can.
If you think you had better call an earlier meeting I don't think there is any real reason why I could not go over [sooner].
[written up left margin] when I go I should like to stop first in London & Paris [page 3]
D D is leaving for the west the 20 or 24. I hope to get to Wash to confer ↑confer with her↓ before she leaves and to stay on during her absence ↑till Nov 5 or 8.↓ If possible I will try to see Lillian Wald on my way to Washington. If I can't do that I will see her as soon as I can. [page 4]
The minutes [illegible] ↑seem to me↓ very interesting & very alive and I can't say I feel disheartened in spite of the differences. I am glad anyway the line is not between the Fr. & Ger.
The financial account is not too bad but I miss any statement of no. of Am. Assoc. members; any statement of Maison [Intl] accounts, which we always used to have [page 5]
I note proposal China delegation return via U.S. am glad to note Mm Drevet speaks Eng.
I like the proposal for a summer school in Oxford & the whole spirit of this arrangement [though] it is not the theme I shld have thought most useful.
Pax
This whole discussion & the decisions seemed to me at least as satisfactory as one could have possibly hoped. I think it is all right to allocate 2.5 fr. from [written up right margin] future ass. memberships for Pax [page 6]
Fascism
note second page of afternoon of 10th last ¶ before 2.
If Salvemini is still in this country we might consult him as to whether he sees anything we could do.
I am sorry to see Shaw quoted as pro Mussolini. [page 7]
The thing that troubles me most is the feeling ↑of some↓ that we must operate by majority vote and that [rational?] groups must actively attempt ↑voted↓ policies ↑that↓ they believe wrong or unwise or else leave the W.I.L.
(I wish we could get them all to read some of Miss Follett or of the Inquiry group's stuff, as to discussion & joint action!)
This comes out most sharply in discussion of action of in case there is [illegible] a national rupture with Russia. I think if Fr. & Ger. view is influenced [page 8] partly by love of Russia, partly by fear of an [illegible] ↑an anti-↓ Russian war.
But the ↑possible↓ circumstances controlling a ↑[gov]↓ decision to send home a Soviet rep've are as diverse & unforeseeable that a blanket vote appears to me impossible.
Migration
(p 6 morning session, Sept 11.)
We must consider this request when it comes. Perhaps the Abbotts will help us. [page 9]
[Ibid]
p. 5. Unemployment
It is enough to make one throw up ones hands to have as able a women as A. A'g say every one that work earns his keep & [sure] I would it were true!
Arrangement (bottom of p. 1, Sep. 11 pen session) seems wise
[Ibid] p 4
I wish G. D. [illegible] wouldn't threaten resignation!
next ¶
What does Dr. Clark mean by "The National Members must have a share in the direct election of the Executive"? [page 10]
I can't say I am drawn by the idea of our undertaking a school.
If done I think it should be done by one National Section, other sections helping as they could.
Balkan part all very int'g. At the F. of R. meeting in Asbury Park Oliver Dryer raised spoke of their proposed office for the Balkans, to be spheres of Vienna, if possible to get money. The whole am't ($5000) was raised at once from that small assembly, besides more money [page 11] [than] usual for the regular F of R budget here.
1929 Aug.
As to ↑a↓ Congress itinerant through the different Balkan countries it is a very int'g proposal, difficult, even dangerous (to our cause) conceivably useful.
I don't know about the conf'ce in the Balkans in Oct. here referred to.
It would be nice if some of Pax could be translated into Bulgarian (& Serbian) as suggested.
I hope we can be represented well at the ↑Womens↓ [Petite?] [illegible] meeting in Warsaw. I wish [page 12] I could combine that with a Spring Exec. meeting.
Work ↑proposed↓ with Congress of Nationalities is interesting (p 4, [pen?], Sept 13)
What a fine spirit Edith Pye shows about going to China. I do [illegible] hope the English can raise the money. I think that if you wrote a letter ↑that↓ they could use, saying you think it necessary for an English woman to go, for Mrs. Pye to go, it might help them to ↑get the money↓
Of course you could just [page 13] offer it to them to use if they chose, or not.
Congratulations on having lived to get through this screed -- if you have.
Your ever devoted E. G. B
I am looking out on such a lovely world of yellowing [birches]

Comments