Agent of Peace Read online

  As our Envoys are now all in America the whole responsibility is upon me here at present. The work is of exceeding interest and value and one day I think the World will own the fact … Now what we women want is peace not victory – toute autre chose. We want to get rid of the exploded idea of peace viz. that the Victor should dictate terms to the Vanquished. As all have some right and some wrong it is obvious that – to meet and settle it amicably is the wise and sensible plan and that it is worse than foolish to shed another drop of blood over it …

  She noted that The Spectator had said Leonard had changed sides politically. She said she had bet him – a box of dates – years ago that he would change his stripes and now kidded that she wanted her due! But Leonard answered her by saying:

  I have not changed my principles or my party … I changed my view of the character of the German Govt and its ambitions, being impelled to this change by careful observation of the facts. We get plenty of the German side of the case (at the Manchester Guardian). I should not agree with you that is a ‘dispute’ where both sides have some right and some wrong. It is in our view a deliberate attack on the nations of Europe wh we have to ward off as well as we can …16

  Leonard’s book The World in Conflict was now out. Emily said: ‘I do not know what the lines of your book may be, but roughly the above would be my argument if I were to venture to write.’

  Emily was working hard trying to get funds for the overhead expenses of the International Committee. She mentioned this in a letter to Romberg in Berne, 1 September 1915, thanking him for a note of encouragement.17 She attached their press release with a proposal for a Conference of Neutral Nations which should, without delay, offer continuous mediation: ‘The work of the Conference should be to formulate concrete proposals of possible terms for peace as a basis for suggestions and objections on the part of the belligerent Governments and for public discussion.’ They would continue until the belligerent themselves found sufficient common ground to meet for the final settlement of the peace treaty. It is not clear that Emily drafted the press release but it seems likely. On the notepaper Emily was listed as ‘Acting Secretary pro tem’.

  On 4 October 1915 Emily wrote to Jane Addams saying they were sending by hand some copies of the Report, an early edition, without the French and German sections which were not ready. Emily said she felt they should have a German woman and a French woman either in the office or closely connected with it to deal properly and internationally with their points of view and with those languages. They had had the first news from Aletta Jacobs and were very sorry to hear that Jane was ill.18

  Meanwhile on their American trip Rosika Schwimmer had an amazing idea. Through Louis Lochner, a peace activist from Chicago who had acted as Jane Addams’ secretary at The Hague, she was in touch with Henry Ford, the beloved car manufacturer. Out of this, and subsequent meetings, Henry Ford agreed to finance a ship, which would sail to Europe on a peace mission.19

  Ford decided to sail in December on his Peace Ship for Scandinavia. Rosika Schwimmer and other activists would be on board. Only illness prevented Jane Addams from coming to Europe in the same way.20

  Notes

  * Thomson said the society was started by the Quakers as a religious movement to ‘establish a world order based on love’ which forbade the waging of war and called for a life service. It exists today in Britain and the United States and was, for some time, active in Germany.

  * A long-time and highly respected social worker and peace activist in the United States, who became a member of the Quakers.

  ** Individual women or women from mixed societies could attend by expressing support for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes and extension of suffrage to women.

  * Chrystal Macmillan was one of the earliest women graduates from Edinburgh University, with second-class honours in moral philosophy and logic, and first-class honours in mathematics and natural philosophy. She was devoted to the cause of peace and justice for women of all classes and, when enabled in the 1920s, became a barrister to pursue these aims in the courts.

  ** In his book All the Way Lord Robert Cecil, Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, the minister in charge of the blockade, explained that in olden times towns were blockaded in order to prevent commerce with other places. He said: ‘This was not possible in this instance but Britain could and did interfere with Germany’s overseas trade so that supplies could not get there through neutral countries.’ 9

  * The Union of Democratic Control was formed by those who dissented from British government policy, especially MPs, 5 August 1914. Members were ardent proponents of a negotiated peace.

  1. TNA CAB24/34 Pacifism

  2. In Selections from the Smuts Papers vol. III, EH/JCS, vol. 13 p. 56

  3. International Congress of Women Report

  4. Correspondence with Jane Addams, Swarthmore College

  5. Ibid.

  6. International Congress of Women Report

  7. TNA FO 371/2567 no. 82596

  8. Correspondence, Swarthmore College

  9. Cecil, All the Way p. 130

  10. TNA FO371/2567 no. 1243191

  11. German records

  12. EH Journal vol. 1 pp. 3–8

  13. International Congress of Women Report

  14. Ibid.

  15. JHB collection

  16. Ibid.

  17. German records

  18. Jane Addams papers, Swarthmore College

  19. Patterson, p. 156

  20. Ibid. p. 165; Alice Hamilton to EH, 4 December 1915, JHB collection

  4

  HARD KNOCKS

  E mily said it was for personal financial reasons she had to leave Holland on 24 October 1915. Aletta Jacobs had returned from America only the day before, so they just met. The British Foreign Office, which had found out when she was due, asked for a representative from Scotland Yard to meet and interview her at Tilbury Docks. Emily said she laughed off the ‘strip search’ that she had to undergo but it must have been unnerving.1 Scotland Yard soon lost interest in her.

  Emily spent six days in London, during which time she met old friends and saw some members of the [British] Committee for Permanent Peace. These members were not pleased she had been in the office in Amsterdam.

  Emily told Jane Addams on 4 November 1915 that she knew they disliked her:

  … my public self, my private self is unknown to them and objected to my name being at all prominent in this work, but I was hardly prepared for such an attitude as that wh I have encountered. All this does not matter to me privately, but my public self is affronted and I think rightly since my public actions, if they have meant anything, have meant a stand for the very principles embodied in many of our Resolutions. No other woman in England has so stood for those principles publicly and for that reason alone it has seemed to me that an association formed to propagate them should support and welcome me and not oppose my work.

  But the Committee here has fallen into the hands of a clique – who were reared under the re-actionary influence of Mrs Fawcett and timidity and expediency prevail … It has been a real revelation of narrowness. I have asked them to strike my name off the list of their association – but I want you to know and to let Dr. Jacobs know that this step does not mean that I withdraw from the work. I am at your disposal and hers, as far as my limitations of bodily strength and means permit – and there is no cause to which I am more willing to devote my life. I am thankful that I am so much stronger than I have been … I realise that with this strong current against me, there may be no place that I can fill, but I can work a good deal outside …

  [She was glad to be alone by the sea in a quiet spot – probably Bude, Cornwall – saying her life had been spent so much alone that long stretches of solitude had become] a necessity in which to gather strength …

  [She wanted to get rid of her house in Cornwall and also her flat in Rome] One longs to possess nothing and so to be free for the service of humanity. Yet a woman so needs a home … One i
s dragged two ways …

  [As a postscript] It is a real regret to me that they have elected such an unrepresentative five [The five women for the Permanent Peace Executive]. One is to be Irish, that is good, and Margaret Bondfield is splendid – but instead of three of one type all representing the NUWSS [National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies] we needed a strong brain like Vernon Lee [author, internationalist and musician] – and certainly a member of the Society of Friends – a woman of the standing of Margery Fry with broad cultivated mind and then one NUWSS would have completed it.2

  Aletta Jacobs told Jane Addams on 4 December that the British Committee did not approve of Emily being in the office and treated her in such a way that she had withdrawn as a member of the British Committee and had asked to be an international member – as had some other British women, but it would have to be discussed.3 It was suggested, not by Aletta Jacobs, that the delay in getting their overseas mail was due to Emily being in the office. This seems unlikely.

  Emily was anxious to get back to Rome. It was Sir John Simon, the Home Office chief*, who asked the Permit Office to provide her with the necessary permit. He told Lord Robert Cecil on 28 October 1915 that he had decided not to detain her in Britain as he had no details of her conduct in Italy ‘that would warrant such a measure. If the Italian authorities found her “presence obnoxious” it was up to them to forbid her return.’ To which Cecil replied 8 November: ‘The possibility of a woman known to have indulged in absurd and undesirable conduct in the past repeating this behaviour to the prejudice of British interests in Italy (or any other foreign country really) at a time when our relations with Italy are a matter of concern.’4 However, the Foreign Office, who had time on their side, took no action.

  On 10 December 1915 Jan Smuts wrote to Emily:

  I suppose this is the saddest Christmas that Europe has seen since the Black Death devastated Europe in the Middle Ages. What is going to become of us and our civilisation. I see no sign of decided victory on either side and it is apparently going to be a process of attrition which will leave Europe broken and finished at the end … We are letting out most of the rebel prisoners and de Wet will also get the option to go, but I don’t think he will until every one is let go, which of course we cannot yet do …

  [The rains were good and everything looked like a garden. The Imperial Government had offered him the command in German East Africa but he had declined, feeling the Union wasn’t quite safe at the moment] Goodbye my dear Auntie … Let me sometimes hear from you please.5

  Switzerland

  Emily had arrived in Switzerland, via France, in the first week of December.

  A somewhat sorrowful Emily wrote to Aletta Jacobs from Berne, 7 December 1915:

  Dear Friend,

  I write to you privately what I believe I am desired to tell you – a note to the Office with which of course I have no further connection, unless someday I shall learn that individuals may affiliate, (also I hope Societies) direct to the Central (Bureau).

  From here I can write more freely, but you cannot reply because I leave for Rome via Milan in two days, and not only is the state of affairs in France and Italy very bad for us, but I personally am under surveillance. Particularly are they suspicious of anyone who passes thro’ Switzerland and indeed if I linger here I shall not be allowed to cross the Italian frontier. I underwent a very long exam at the French border yesterday morning, but as I had nothing to hide and nothing to fear I did not mind, but the serious thing is they were expecting me.

  Paris is full of unpleasant people, of that kind that always come to the surface in time of war. Our poor friends there are going thro’ evil days, and ask me to put you au courant. The police have raided the Office in Rue Foudary and her private house (three men coming before 7 a.m.) also their printer’s house. The Correspondence with your Bureau was seized, though not all. Every paper in Paris had articles and paragraphs about them during the successive days … They are held up to the scorn and derision of the entire country in a blaze of most unenviable notoriety …

  [There followed changes of address and a request that the greatest prudence ‘is taken on what is sent’, followed by remarks on French politics] …

  I send you 50 francs – This is a gift for us from the Frenchman whose name is on the wall list with a ‘le’ before it. You must send no receipt, or write or post to him anything more. His name is not to appear in any list – put Anonymous (French) 50 frs. His wife came to me (he is in the South) it would be certain death for him …6

  As for Emily, her troubles had not ceased. The British minister in Berne, Evelyn Grant Duff, was evidently anxious to appear efficient – he had an extremely efficient wife who was organising a major food parcels scheme for prisoners of war in Germany and later became a Dame of the British Empire. He remembered that the Foreign Office had asked in August for Emily to be apprehended and sent back to England so he wired the Foreign Office for instructions.

  Emily wrote to Aletta Jacobs on 8 December: ‘I was writing you a long letter but that must wait a day or two.’ She said she had been held up – ‘no reason given’ – and she wasn’t certain whether it was a personal or general order: ‘No hint was given me that I should be kept a prisoner in Switzerland – where it is high and cold … I have been advised to appeal direct to Sir Ed Grey …’7

  She had wired accordingly to Arthur Ponsonby, Henry Hobhouse and Lord Courtney asking them to put pressure on the Foreign Office to let her continue her journey.

  To Arthur Ponsonby MP she wrote:

  Please see Sir Edward Grey on my behalf. Ask him to instruct Legation Berne let me proceed to Rome. Passports self and maid in order, viséd London and Paris for Italy via Switzerland. Resting here two days, find myself stopped no reason assigned. Health weak must go on. Must wind up affairs in Rome cannot afford to keep flat there longer nor stay here.8

  Finally Cecil relented and by 22 December authorised Grant Duff to give Emily a visa provided she promised not to indulge in propaganda, especially peace propaganda.9

  Grant Duff tried to get Emily to take an oath, which she would not, but she had to sign a paper:

  I the undersigned, Emily Hobhouse, hereby solemnly and sincerely declare that if I receive the British visa to proceed to Italy, I undertake not to indulge in propaganda of any sort, especially propaganda in favour of peace, and not to remain in Italy any longer time than is necessary to settle my personal affairs. In making this declaration I clearly understand that it is open to the Italian authorities to refuse me permission to enter Italy if they judge fit.

  The declaration was duly signed and witnessed.10

  Four days later Emily wrote to Aletta:

  One last letter to you as I leave Switzerland and descend into what will be like the silence of the grave.

  My telegram reached London because a wire came from the Foreign Office reversing the orders of Grant Duff the British Minister at this Legation. He however, to save his dignity I fancy, said I was to take an oath that ‘I would do no peace propaganda of any sort or kind in Italy’. I refused to take an oath – and so was made to sign a declaration of the same words … The Italian Consul made not the slightest difficulty and so off I go, and I do not envy myself the experience, for I shall be under close surveillance … and very likely my flat will be raided before I get there … I have arranged to send news if possible to Gertrud Woker and if you wish to write to me that also would be the best way, putting on your envelope to her Via Deutschland … She promises to be my private censor … Please, please no word of Peace. I should not at all mind an English prison, but draw the line at an Italian ditto! …

  [As compensation to being kept in Switzerland she said she had met many of the Swiss women interested in peace – but found that even the nicest wouldn’t work easily with each other unless they agreed on every point.] I think the younger section … are shaking themselves free of the older suffragist … There are others too, anxious to start a general popular agitation to shew that t
he people insist on some effort being made by this country for peace. I do hope that Mr. Ford is really coming, he and his party might do something to unite and give expression to these various parties….

  The accounts I have of Italy are very sad. I hate going there.

  She gave the names of the five for the Executive from France which she hoped she got right as she hadn’t been able to (was afraid to) write anything down.11

  Italy

  It was Chrystal Macmillan who answered Emily, writing to thank her for all she had done in Amsterdam.12 Chrystal said she was very sorry to hear in London the way some people had behaved and told her: ‘You will be glad to know that we have had letters from one of the women you wrote to in Uruguay and from one in Japan – very friendly both.’ She remarked that the women in Manitoba had got full suffrage and it was expected in Alberta soon.

  Perhaps unbeknown to Emily – she does not mention it – British Prime Minister Asquith paid a visit to Rome at the end of March. During this visit he saw Pope Benedict XV. In his memoirs, Asquith said: ‘Our talk was naturally confined to the war and germane topics: the Pope carefully refraining from indicating any leaning of his own to either side, and I giving no encouragement to a feeler which he incidentally threw out that he might act as mediator.’13 In fact Asquith took the cavalier stand, so admirable in the British if one is not concerned about loss of life.

  Emily concluded her affairs and left Italy in April 1916.

  Switzerland Again

  She wrote to Aletta Jacobs on Easter Day, 23 April 1916, from Berne that she was saddened by the thought that just when their work was most needed, the Bureau seemed to be breaking down.14