◆ SpookStack

ae Be ele Se Geta ew 6 to the compulsory establishment of brothels for foreign soldiers, with consequent heavy charges on the inhabitants and the count- less other insults and restrictions which must accompany the occupation of a land by a hostile army. Political intrigue to separate the Rhineland was also mentioned as a source of much ill-feeling and the growing anxiety of the medical profession, with regard. to the health of the peopte: * Mile Jeanne Mélin warned the Conference that the presence of an army of occupation was a menate not only for the present but for the future. Men said, “Nous,ne marcherons pas.” ~ But ‘the young men were there in the Rhineland, and, if the order were given for the ald men to march in, they would follow the young ones. ' Sir George Paish gave an address at the opening of the dis- cussion on the economic aspects. This was received with much interest, and it is hoped to publish his paper as a pamphlet. He outlined a plan by which the necessary credits to get industry and trade going again in Europe could be raised. These were to be guaranteed by countries all over the world on condition that Germany promised:to pay when her trade and currency had revived. I¢ was an &bsolutely essential condition for the raising of these credits that-there- should be security that this money should not-be used for armies and navies, and Sir George suggested that & universal League of Nations was the organization required to ensure this, He warned the meeting that disaster was imminent and action must be speedy. Mr. Pethick Lawrence pointed out that the armies of occupa- tion had spent 54 millions, whereas reparations had brought in hO millions only. The attempt to reduce Germany to a: slave e: was reducing workers of other countries to a slave class. e used to protest;against prison labour competing in the labour market, but German labour now was prison labour. He agreed with Sir George that disaster was imminent, but he would have liked to see the cancelling of all war debts. Dr. Alice Salomon, taking up a phrase of Sir George's, contem- plating the revival of a great industrial Germany, said that the idealistic Youth Movement i in Germany has no such ambition, but is willing to live a hard life. Insult and oppression are injurious to @ people, not hardship, It was good to see the French delegates pluckily facing the possibility of being called to account for their international attitude, and, declaring that they should not evade | responsibility, but go home “/e front haut”; and the Germans: eagerly accepting from Sir George Paish the suggestion that what was wanted now from Germany was “a willing promise to pay.” Miss Bondfield made the solidarity of Labour her theme, and . pressed home the fact that by lowering the standard of living of German workers, England and France were lowering the standard of their own. Again and again, in speeches from Mme Duchéne, Mile Dejardin, Mrs. Robinson, Dr. Tylicka, Mile Mélin, and others, it became clear that a very Jarge section of the Conference accepted the resolution only as a minimum demand, and ‘had a well con- sidered constructive economic policy which they could have put forward under other circumstances. Mlle Pottecher Arnould believed that disarmament would come when soldiers refused to fight; there must be a general strike against war. Miss Honora Enfield believed that the existence of vast armaments made the establishment of a real peace im- possible ; the physical expression of an,emotion tends to produce that emotion. She did not want the establishment of an‘ interna- tional army with all the power and prestige it would acquire. In opening the discussion om .the psychical effects of the treaties, Mme Jouve said that in 1918 it was not only the Germans who were more peaceably minded, but the French also. Since then the war propaganda of the ‘French Government had been successful and even educated people in France believed in Germany’s sole guilt. They were having it always dinned into their cars also that Germany refused to pay. A Chinese wall of ignorance and antagonism to other countries was being raised in France, and only the masses, with a few choice spirits, were sick of the whole busi- ness. Mrs. Pethick Lawrence spoke eloquently of the vitiation of the intellectual life of Europe by the lie of the Treaty of Versailles By breaking the pledge contained in the Armistice terms, the Allies had debased the moral coinage of the world. Sir Willoughby Dickinson, in speaking of the position of minorities under the treaties, suggested that the Women's International League might do a great work of reconciliation among national groups in the. various states. The fact that so much was excluded from ‘discussion did, of course, make for unanimity on the one subject of demonstration, but it tended to a certain monotony, which was quite agrecably broken by M. Ruyssen’s lively attack, the only one delivered at the object of the Conference. He complained that the resolution was