I.
Your Excellency,
I have the [honor] to forward to you a proposal, drafted by the German Section of the W.I.L.P.F. with regard to the settlement of the Silesian "question."
I cannot submit this proposal officially on behalf of the W.I.L.P.F. as a whole because it has not been before our International Congress or our International Executive Committee. I do not know whether it would be endorsed by them in detail. But I can assure you that in spirit it would have the support of every one of our National Sections. The desire shown by the German women that this question should be settled not in [favor] of one country at the expense of another [and even] solely on a basis of justice [page 2] between the peoples of the 2 nations most closely concerned, but on the broader basis of the ↑welfare↓ interest of the world as a whole & of the coal-consuming populations of all countries -- this desire expresses the essential spirit of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom ↑our League.↓ May we venture to hope that it is the spirit also in which the League of Nations will deal with this question?
We believe that the foregoing of monopolistic possession of such universal necessities as coal is one of the surest ways to promote peace & goodwill between nations, & to remove the jealousies, fears & rivalries which lead to the building up of huge armaments & to an international policy based on force & threats of force.
At the Int. Congress of the W.I.L.P.F. held in Vienna last July month a Resolution on the Silesian question was passed and telegraphed to the Supreme Council then sitting in Paris. The Resolution, brought forward on the joint initiative of the Polish & the German delegates present, was [page 3] [passed] unanimously at a public meeting which [packed?] the great hall of the Musikvereinsgebäude -- [&] requested the Supreme Council to ...
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It was with great satisfaction that we learned that the Supreme Council had referred decided to refer this question to the League of Nations. We venture to hope that the result will ↑not only↓ be a just & peaceful settlement, but a strengthening of the prestige of the League of Nations, & of the respect & confidence accorded to it by the peoples of the world.
I have the [honor] to be, Sir,
Yours faithfully
Catherine E. Marshall
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