the very best of their will and their
intelligence in assuring the future stability of the world.

An important report was that of the Headquarters Committee, consisting
of Mrs. Catt, Mrs. Millicent Garrett Fawcett, first vice-president of
the Alliance, Mrs. Adela Stanton Coit, treasurer, and Miss Macmillan.
Mrs. Coit was chairman the first two years and Mrs. Fawcett the rest
of the time. After the Congress at Budapest in 1913 the official
monthly paper _Jus Suffragii_ was removed from Rotterdam to London and
the international headquarters established there. For the next seven
years the three members of the committee resident in London held
regular meetings, seventy altogether, consulting Mrs. Catt by letter
or cable when necessary. Miss Mary Sheepshanks was editor and
headquarters secretary. "She occupied that post with great acceptance
till 1919," said the report, "when it was with much regret that her
resignation was accepted. Mrs. Elizabeth Abbott was appointed to the
place, where in connection with the preparations for the present
Congress her organizing capacity has been of special value." Miss
Rosika Schwimmer of Hungary was appointed press secretary to furnish
the news to the international press but her work had 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
Ambassadors and Ministers 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
political 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 Allianc