LAUSANNE PALACE HOTEL—THE HOME OF TURKEY, FRANCE, AND JAPAN—"EVERY POSSIBLE PHASE OF COMPLETE INTERNATIONALISM"
"Please reserve comfortable room for English woman coming from Angora," so ran the telegram despatched by an American friend of mine, who had gallantly determined that I should be well looked after. It was both comfortable and warm; and, to complete the welcome, my waking eyes next morning are caught by the two flags I have learnt to love so well, the Turkish and the French—the "standards" of two brave peoples, with the fine spirit that nothing can subdue, who would choose rather to be annihilated than to live in servitude.
Then I notice the flag of Japan! "What has Japan to do with it?" I ask Ismet Pasha.
"Ah, Miss d'Angora," he answers with a laugh, "it is fine sport to watch the poor little bird as they pluck out his feathers and clip his wings."
Indeed, Lausanne has been "revolutionised" by this Conference of Peace! It is a golden harvest for the hotels, which have not a room unoccupied. Every day luncheons, dinners, and banquets! Everywhere representatives of the world's Press! I feel strange, somehow, in a "neutral" country. Ever since 1914 I have been living, or travelling, over "seats of war," in lands fighting to defend, or attack, an Ideal.
One can respect any sort of an "opinion" from some point of view; but "neutrality" and "anonymity" do not sound to me like attributes in which a free and independent people should feel much pride.
