One hundred years ago this week Melbourne's pacifist Woman Voter was fighting its relentless "war against the war".
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Its Adela Pankhurst contrasted UK Prime Minister Asquith's macho, militant terms of peace with women's gentler humane terms. She gave Asquith another figurative black eye to go with the two famously given him by London suffragettes.
"Mr Asquith has said 'We shall never sheath the sword until Belgium recovers in full measure more than all she has sacrificed ... and until Prussia's domination is wholly and finally destroyed'."
But Pankhurst urged women to work for peace terms "more reasonable and humane" than Asquith's "man-ridden" ones.
She accused that in his saying that "Belgium must recover in full measure all and more than she has sacrificed, you could see Asquith believed "Property is of more value than Life."
"But it is impossible to restore to Belgium the lives of her children, which are more precious than her cities. What victory for the Allies can give back to innocent little Belgians their childish happiness? In the continuation of the war, Belgium's sacrifices are day by day increased. More of her sons fall in battle, leaving widows, orphans and bereaved mothers. Bombardment by the Allies to dislodge the Germans destroy the homes in which Belgian men and women live and children are reared.
"All women should endeavour to send to Belgium [not money] but a message of Peace, which alone can restore the nation. If the war is prolonged ... then we are sinning against the Belgian people."
