"Firstly, secret diplomacy must be entirely done away with ... and no conflict should be entered upon before the opinion of the people has been obtained by ballot. (And then only those who were anxious for ,and voted for war should be asked to engage in it.)

"And if it were possible to give any one section of the community any special consideration in the matter then the women should get it. Woman has the pain, and travail, and trouble through long years of constant care in nurturing and developing the young life which later blossoms into, only too often, a compulsory soldier. Then the life it took her so long to establish is shattered in an instant on the brutal battlefield. Surely as the originator of that life she should have the say in the disposal of it?

"It is this that prompts [United States feminist] Dr Anna Shaw to bitterly ask, 'Is it that hundreds of thousands of their sons may go down to death before the terrible machinery of modern war that the nations call upon women to give their youth, their years of toil, and their labour for a higher civilisation? Have they reared sons only to become a prey to the ambitions of kings and exploiters? Let the women of every nation involved in war make their men understand that the highest patriotism lies in conserving life ...' "