Sudbury Esperanto Group (Grupo)meeting in April 1939. Esperanto was devised as an easy and flexible language that could easily serve as a universal second language and thus promote peace and international understanding. Unsurprisingly totalitarian governments such as Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia discouraged its use and persecuted its adherents. L to R: Mrs Bitten, Hilda Bettridge, ? , Mr Dean, Vincent Bettridge, ? ,Mr Bitten, George Andrews, Mrs Olive Sawyer, ? , Mrs Eason. Their hopes of World Peace were soon to be shattered.