Copy of letter to Madame Duchêne from Miss Chick dated June 17th, 1927.
Dear Madame Duchêne.
I have delayed answering the letter signed by yourself, Madame Ramondt-Hirschmann and Miss Louie Bennett written from Geneva on May 26th, as it seemed best to put this in the hands of our Executive Committee Members before replying.
The Executive met last Tuesday and we discussed fully the points raised in it in regard to China.
(1) With regard to the resolution of the International Executive and the letter to the Chinese women. The point was raised that the alteration in this resolution was made after the date understood by us to be the official closing date of the International Executive Meeting at Liège. This being so surely it would have been better to have consulted the British Section before acting upon the altered form of the resolution. When this change was reported to the Executive Committee of the British Section at its meeting on April 5th, the first problem that suggested itself was how best to deal with the accomplished fact. We considered that if our demands for "withdrawal of all troops" without distinction as to their purpose, were made known in Great Britain and if this were held to be the view of the British Section not only would our appeal for funds for a delegation to China be useless but also the whole of our work in this country for better understanding and better relations between the peoples and Governments would be [jeopardized]. It was on these grounds that we acted and I can only say how sorry I am that there was delay in informing the International Headquarters of the steps taken. In saying this I am speaking for myself and on behalf of all concerned.
(2) In regard to the matter of the delegation to China I feel that both our motives and our actions have been gravely misunderstood probably owing to difficulty in communication. From the first the British Section has desired to act in this matter in the closest cooperation with International Executive. A special meeting of our British Executive was called on April 22nd to deal exclusively with matters connected with China. After this meeting a letter dated April 26th was sent to Miss Doty, and from her reply, dated May 6th, I notice that she sent "extracts" to all members of the Executive Committee.
Possibly the fact that only extracts were sent has given rise to misapprehension. I am, therefore, sending you a full copy of this letter from which you will see that all our suggestions in regard to the inclusion of a British delegate to China are in the form of recommendations. We have taken no action in the matter except to think of the best and most suitable women -- if it is decided that a British delegate be included -- and Miss Edith Pye seemed to us to be most suitable if she were available. At the [page 2] present time there is uncertainty as to this, even if it were likely to be possible to obtain a passport for a British woman to go to China in the near future.
The raising of funds is a weighty problem and in our view the suggested inclusion of a British woman in the delegation will not make it more difficult to collect in Europe, but should there be no British delegate it will be practically impossible to make any appeal for funds except from Women's International League branches and members, and for big sums we have to go outside our immediate circle.
I am sending this letter and enclosure to Madame Ramondt-Hirschmann, Miss Louie Bennett and to Miss Doty by this post.
Yours sincerely,
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