Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/882

 866 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE hardly begun when the war broke out and she resigned the position to take up work for peace. The report told of the meeting of the international officers and a number of the national presidents which took place in London in July, 1914, to make arrangements for the Congress in Berlin the next year. Among the many social receptions given were one in the House of Commons and one at the home of former Prime Minister Balfour. Mrs. Catt had just started on her homeward voyage when the war began. The officers in London at once issued a Manifesto in the name of the Alliance and presented it to the British Foreign Office and the Ammbassadors and Minis- ters in London, which after pointing out the helplessness of women in this supreme hour said : "We women of twenty-six countries, having banded ourselves together in the International Woman Suffrage Alliance with the object of obtaining the polit- ical means of sharing with men the power which shapes the fate of nations, appeal to you to leave untried no method of conciliation or arbitration for arranging international differences which may help to avert deluging half the civilized world in blood." They decided to cooperate with the British branch of the Alliance in a public meeting, which was held August 3 with Mrs. Fawcett in the chair, and a resolution similar to the above was adopted. In the next issue of the International News, when war had been declared, Mrs. Fawcett in her official capacity wrote : We are faced by the disruption, the animosity, the misunder- standing caused by war but notwithstanding the cruel strain we must firmly resolve to hold our International Alliance together. We must believe all through that good is stronger than evil, that justice and mercy are stronger than hatred and destruction, just as life is stronger than death. We women who have worked to- gether for a great cause have hopes and ideals in common ; these are indestructible links binding us together. We have to show that what unites us is stronger than what separates us. Between many of us there is also the further link of personal friendship cemented by many years of work together. We must hold on through all difficulties to these things which are good in themselves and must therefore be a strong help to us all through these days of trial. "In this spirit the Headquarters Committee has endeavored to carry out its task," said its report, "and it has so far succeeded