Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society
taine remained suspicious of Germans , even those who were masons .
ULF and AMI
The letter also allows us to broach
the subject of international masonic relations , especially those between the ULF and the AMI . The Alliance maçonnique international ( AMI ) was formed in 1921 . It combined several obediences , except for those connected to the United Grand Lodge of England . The AMI and the ULF therefore had the same goal of unification but took different approaches . The ULF ’ s grassroots approach of bringing together masons was more attractive to La Fontaine , but questions remained : Were these two structures competing ? Would one replace the other ? These two questions appear in some of the letters that the two men exchanged in 1928 while preparing the congress to be held in Vienna . The dialogue unfolded against the backdrop of an attempted seduction : An important brother like La Fontaine should join the League ! For that matter , he would be made an honorary member during the congress . 12
Most important , however , is La Fontaine ’ s perspective on the AMI . La Fontaine wrote on May 28 , 1928 :
I do not believe that the AMI can succeed : It is in fact an emanation of national masonic powers , which are themselves the emanation of the lodges . Now , in my opinion , the latter must be able to have their voices heard directly by delegates united in vast meetings . The AMI is like a house of lords . We need a democratic assembly alongside it . The League can serve this purpose . Yet we can differ on the way to recruit members : You adopted individual recruitment without indicating how it would work , because in that case you would have to reach the two or three million brothers that exist on the surface of the earth . I would give my preference to recruitment through the intermediary of lodges and this would already be a formidable task since there are close to 20,000 lodges . To make this work easier , we could limit it to European lodges to start ; the need for fraternization is most urgent there , especially with the efforts made by bellicists to maintain feelings of hatred and suspicion even in masonic environments .
Are we in agreement on this point ? In the affirmative , I will bring it before my lodge as soon as possible [ ... ].
Uhlmann responded as follows on June 1 :
[ ... ] Like you , I am convinced that the AMI will perish ; it is impossible to approach the powers
12 The leaders of the ULF wrote to him after the congress , “ This nomination represents only a small token of recognition for the work you have continued to do up until now by working tirelessly for the very noble goal of universal Freemasonry .”
50