Nevertheless, she began to make plans to sail on the Polish passenger liner Pitsudski at midnight on October 11 . She also cabled Shoghi Effendi: 'extension sojourn america refused. friends trying to
change government"s decision. otherwise returnlkg poland. please cable if should act otherwise.'
Now all sorts of matters suddenly became critical. Lidia had been carrying around the check the National Assembly had given her on her arrival - she had been unable to cash it because she did not have a bank account. This was money she would need to pay her passage to Poland. But now the check was a year old and no bank would cash it. 'Knowing nothing about the banking and check customs' and being 'inexperienced about business affairs', she sought Roy Wilhelm's advice. Eventually she was given a new check.
During her year in America, Lidia had left some of her belongings at the homes of her various hosts. She never got her iron back, but lucki'y the fur coat she had left in a department store in Detroit to be mended had just been returned to her. She would need it in Poland.
On October 3 a telegram arrived from Emest Dodge: 'OFFICIAL in CHARGE CONSENTS TO RECOMMEND EXTENSION UNTIL DECEMBER 3RD.
letter tonight.' Mr Dodge had gone to the Immigration Department and had met with a Mr Whorrall to discuss Lidia's case. Now it was revealed that she had been denied an extension of her visitor's permit because by accepting money for the Esperanto classes, she had broken the law: the visitor's permit with which she entered the country did not allow her to work while in the United States. Mr Dodge described to Della his interview with the officiaclass="underline" 'Mr Whorrall assured me that it had been a violation all along of the permit on which Miss Zamenhof entered, for her to have conducted classes as has been done, and as of course we all planned, all the time. Of course I stressed the uniqueness of the service, the invitation from two bodies of altruistic aim, and so on; also the fact that her teaching had not been a money-making proposition, since she had been entertained by personal friends of the cause in order to supplement the moderate receipts from classes. But he said a person on such a permit as visitor is not allowed by the law to work even for board and room.
'Finally he said: "What is the shortest time that would enable her to straighten out her affairs and leave the country voluntarily?" I said sixty days would be needed to finish the course already in progress in Cleveland. Then he said, "Well, I will give her sixty days, counting from today, December 3." And he added that he knew a good many people who came on visitor's permits did manage to work, but that it is against the law, and the department has the right and duty to arrest and deport them when they are aware of the facts. However, he left me to clearly understand that he has no wish to embarrass our movement or Miss Zamenhof personally, and he is ready to just pay no attention to that angle of the matter, provided she goes to some other country before the end of the time now allowed.'
Mr Dodge questioned him about 'future moves possible' and if there were not special rules for professors and educators. 'My understanding of the reply', he told Della, 'is this: that in some instances, in case of a regular professor or specialist, one having unique qualifications which cannot be duplicated in this country, they do grant a special form of entrance permit, without waiting for quota. But that such a permit can be given only on a request which clearly states and establishes the reason for the exception tvhett the permit is first requested, and before entry to the country; and that they could not consider that sort of request at all from one who is already here on a permit which specifies a visit for pleasure, and who has not observed the limitations under
which entry was granted.'
Mr Dodge's efforts had gained Lidia a reprieve of two months - time to finish the courses in Cleveland and to look for an alternative to returning to Poland. 'It is a strange thing,' Della told Roan, 'but every time something has gone wrong with Lidia's affairs, it has been Dodge who has pulled us out.'
Lidia was stunned by the news that by teaching Esperanto courses in America she had been breaking the law. 'I never imagined at all that for a year I have been defying Uncle Sam!' she wrote Della. 'What an unpleasant affair for me. And what would Shoghi Effendi say?
it seems, thus, that under these circumstances it is useless to try to get permission to stay longer. So, the course in Minneapolis will not occur. These, the two courses in Cleveland, are the last which I will give in the United States, and, truly, writing that, I have tears in my eyes.'
How had things come to this unfortunate and embarrassing state? It seems that oversight and misunderstanding were responsible for the error that had led the United States government to order Lidia Zamenhof to leave the country. Lidia had always answered the officials' questions truthfully and had never tried to conceal the purpose of her trip or the fact that she received money for her classes. Certainly the American Consul in France was to blame for not making the matter clear to Lidia at the beginning. But the crisis probably would never have occurred if, before she had come to America, Mr Holley had obtained the 'Waiver from the Contract Labor Clause' which she had begged him 'not to postpone', or if the officials at the port in New York had caught the mistake when he signed the guarantee for Lidia, or if Della Quinlan had looked into the matter when Ernest Dodge reminded her about it, before Lidia had accepted money for her classes.
Lidia herself did not blame anyone. 'I feel very grateful indeed to the NSA', she wrote, 'for their right understanding ofthe situation as well as for the efforts still made for me in Washington.'
Now Lidia had to cancel all her plans to teach in other American cities. Sadly, she wrote to Minneapolis to explain why she could not come. But, unknown to her, because of iack of funds and the terrible inertia of Minneapolis people', the Minneapolis Esperantists had voted not to invite Lidia after all.
During her year in America Lidia had often been urged by friends to seek US citizenship. Now, one of the immigration ofFicials suggested she go to Canada, or any other country - it did not have to be Poland - and try to come back to the United States on the Polish immigration quota. But Lidia doubted her chances to return to America would be good under the circumstances. She feared she might be on a 'blacklist'.
denied
By now, she had received her answer from Shoghi Effendi. His cable read: 'approve return poland. deeploving appreciation. shoghi.'
Although until now Lidia had not been eager to go back to Poland, she was beginning to feel that she had a reason to return home, and that she might have important work to do there. 'It may be rather important for the Cause,' she wrote Della, 'because there are now in the eastern part ofPoland several people who are very much interested in the Baha'i Faith.' One of these was a correspondent of Lidia's, Vasyl Doroshenko, a Ukrainian Esperantist whom Lidia had met at the Warsaw congress in 1937. Through him several of his Ukrainian friends, who did not know Polish, had also become interested. 'One thing is certain,' Lidia wrote, 'a break has been made in the clouds, and the light of the Sun of Baha'u'llah is beginning to penetrate through that opening.'
She wrote Roy Wilhelm, who had suggested she apply for American citizenship, saying that the prospect now seemed 'a very doubtful matter though I would like it, because traveling with a Polish Passport implies many difficulties . . . There is another reason, too, and this is that the situation of the people of my race is more and more difficult in Europe. They are persecuted and chased from Germany, from Italy - and Poland may come next.'
Hoping to find a way Lidia could avoid retuming to Poland, Della wrote to the Canadian Esperanto Association to ask them to invite Lidia to Canada. If they declined, Lidia would have no alternative but to retum to Poland. Della also met with May Maxwell, who lived in Montreal, to discuss the possibility of Lidia's entering Canada. Mrs Maxwell, Della wrote to Ernest Dodge, had agreed 'to co-operate