Feminist Foresight in Statelessness women [in the Netherlands] is still based on the obsolete principle of subjection of women to men’. 51 The momentum of the protesters did not wane throughout the month-long Hague Conference. Bredbenner and DuBois record exactly how the persistence of the protesters was received by the League of Nations delegates, noting how a joint memorandum sent to the Hague Conference by the International Council and the Alliance was read to the assembled delegates on 13 March. Representatives from the two women’s groups were given permission to meet with the Bureau of the Hague Conference on the proviso that this would by no means affect the general Conference. 52 At the meeting, the women emphasised their commitment to nationality-law reform for the next 25 years, and insisted that they be given an opportunity to speak before the full assembly on behalf of women, saying ‘[e]ven a criminal is not refused a legal defender’. 53 Within two weeks, and following the arrival of the ‘militant’ American feminists, 54 the actions of the women as unofficial delegates had finally antagonised the presiding officer of the Hague Conference. 55 The presiding officer was Theodorus Heemskerk, ex-Prime Minister of the Netherlands and long-time enemy of the Dutch women’s suffrage movement. 56 Heemskerk claimed that the women’s groups were harassing the delegates. He gave an order to the Dutch police to eject them from the grounds of the Peace Palace and he then had them barred. 57 Not to be defeated, the women simply regrouped and resumed their protests outside the palace gates. The tenaciousness of the protesters annoyed Heemskerk, who was quoted in the press angrily claiming that the women ‘came not merely as strangers, but with the hostile intention of frustrating the work of the conference’. 58 He also referred to the feminists’ proposals for equality as ‘the unattainable dream’. 59 The Hague Conference was reportedly a rather dull international event in many respects, and so the actions of the feminists were pursued by news reporters who delighted in the ‘publicity-seeking’ activists. 60 The Convention on Certain Questions Relating to the Conflict of Nationality Laws 1930 The only outcome agreed upon at the Hague Conference was the Convention on Certain Questions Relating to the Conflict of Nationality Laws (the ‘Hague Convention’). 61 In spite of the colourful and persistent campaigning of feminists at the Hague Conference, the Hague Convention was not to their satisfaction. It did not uphold equality between men and women in terms of nationality, but only addressed women’s nationality rights insofar as ensuring that they would not become stateless (arts 8–11) or dual nationals. The Hague Convention still 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 ibid 207. ibid. Bredbenner (n 1) 210. DuBois (n 7) 201. Bredbenner (n 1) 210. DuBois (n 7) 201. Bredbenner (n 1) 210. ibid 210–11. DuBois (n 7) 207. Bredbenner (n 1) 211. Convention on Certain Questions Relating to the Conflict of Nationality Laws, opened for signature 12 April 1930, 179 LNTS 89 (entered into force 1 July 1937). 51