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AMS in pencil, signed "G. Bernard Shaw," five pages, 8 x 10.5, August 25, 1915. Shaw pens an open letter to the chairman of the "International Socialist Bureau," commenting on the international situation amidst World War I. In part: "Dear Comrade, At the forthcoming meeting of the British Section on the 3rd prox., the Manifesto dated June 23rd, issued by the National Executive of the German Social-Democratic Party, will come under consideration; and the question of a British reply to it will arise. A Representative Peace Conference, convened by the Society of Friends on the 24th June last, appointed an executive committee to draft a reply. The draft has been submitted to me, and doubtless to other Socialists, by our comrade Clifford Allen, with a request for my signature. As it consists of amiable generalities to which, in the abstract, no humane person can refuse assent, it is possible that it may be extensively signed, and may, in the absence of any more authoritative and definite document, be accepted as the best reply British Socialists can make to their German comrades. I have refused to sign it on the ground that it says nothing that might not be said by Admirals Fisher and Von Tirpitz, and that it conveys a misleading impression that British Socialists believe that the war can be stopped quite simply at any moment on general Pacifist principles.
But I do not consider it sufficient to refuse to sign and to remain silent. All of us who mean anything definite should now utter it; for the opponents of Socialism are clamorous and insistent; and the shouting of one man goes further than the silence of ten thousand. I therefore suggest that the British Section should issue a reply to the German Manifesto…I have returned to draft the sort of reply that, in my opinion, we owe to our German comrades, in order that they may not be led to deceive themselves as to the real facts of the situation, and the extent to which we are bound by these facts in spite of the general moral considerations dwelt on by the Society of Friends and the extreme Pacifists in our own ranks." He goes on to outline the key points of his proposed draft, with commentary on his process. In very good to fine condition, with some light creasing and toning, and rusty paperclip impressions to the upper left corners.
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