The introduction of the ladies’s peace petition, which started in 1923 in Wales.

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The introduction of the ladies’s peace petition, which started in 1923 in Wales.

WCIA

Dreams of world peace are as previous as wars. But as the ladies of Wales have been recovering from World War I, they demanded peace in droves.

Still grieving the husbands, sons, and family members who fought within the struggle, in 1923 the Welsh League of Nations United (WLNU) drafted a petition at Aberystwyth University calling for a warless world.

The petition was signed by roughly three quarters of all the ladies in Wales and was stated to be seven miles lengthy. The doc was then packed in a big oak chest and despatched throughout the Atlantic.

It was the WLNU’s hope that America would be a part of of their mission for peace, and they also toured with the petition throughout the nation earlier than President Calvin Coolidge gave it to the Smithsonian for preservation.

As the centennial anniversary of World War I approached, a plaque was discovered within the archives on the Temple of Peace in Cardiff mentioning the petition, however no one knew what it was, says Mererid Hopwood, chair of the Women’s Peace Petition Partnership.

“We hadn’t been taught this in school or anything,” she stated.

“There was a curious plaque sort of thing made of Moroccan leather with gold lettering, bilingual message saying something about this petition that nobody seemed to know about.”

The memorial cowl of the peace petition

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So in 2017, an e mail was despatched to the Smithsonian inquiring in regards to the standing and site of the chest and its petition.

Both arrived on the National Library of Wales on March 29 this 12 months. Hopwood was there to obtain it together with different members of the Peace Petition Partnership and describes opening the chest and at last attending to see its contents as an emotional second.

“We were given white gloves and were allowed to open just a few to have a look. And as you can imagine, the inevitable thing happened. One of the women in the gathering there … said, ‘Oh, I know that house!'”

Members of the broader Peace Petition Partnership, primarily from the Heddwch Nain/Mam-gu (Our Grandmother’s Peace) group.

National Library of Wales

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National Library of Wales

Hopwood is hoping extra Welsh residents can have related experiences now that the petition has returned to its authentic dwelling. The petition might be digitized, together with all signatures and addresses, so the general public can view it on-line and see if their grandmothers or earlier tenants of their properties signed 100 years in the past.

Clearly the world has not but achieved the petition’s lofty objectives, however Hopwood stated the signatures gave her hope.

“These people weren’t afraid to think that this was possible, and [had a] common sense approach, ‘OK, so how can we do that? Let’s call on our sisters in the States to see if they can help bring that about,” Hopwood stated.

“One of the things we’ve had as a guiding principle for the partnership is to hold on to hope. And to interpret hope not as a crossing of fingers, but as a power and energy of force that can enable us to do two things: First of all, to see that better place, and secondly, to know the way to get there. It is possible. We have to believe that.”