"The last time I saw her was in the Waverley station. She was returning
shortly to her work abroad, while I was on my way to address a public
meeting in Dundee on the need for attempting to negotiate peace. It was
the time when everybody who dared to breathe the word 'peace,' much more
those who tried to stop the slaughter of men, were denounced as traitors
and pro-Germans. It was the time when one's nearest and dearest failed
to understand. But _she_ understood. And she broke into a busy morning's
work to come down to the train to shake my hand. What we said was very
little; but the look and the hand-clasp were sufficient. We knew
ourselves to be serving the same God of Love and Mercy, and that
knowledge made the bonds between us indissoluble. I never saw nor had
word with her again.
"It is easy to say, what is true, that the world's women owe to Dr.
Elsie Inglis a debt of gratitude they can never repay. But I am
convinced in my own soul that the reward she would have chosen, if
compelled to make the choice, would have been that all who feel that her
work was of worth should join hands in an effort to rid the world of
those evils which make men and women hate and kill one another."
Dr. Inglis did not see with the pacifists of the last five years. But in
this tribute to her is shown her open-mindedness and tolerance of
another's views, even on this cleaving difference of opinion.
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