its members that they are genuine
Masons, Co-Masonry, in its quarterly organ, _The Co-Mason_, is careful
to include masonic news relating to British Masonry as if it formed one
and the same order.

With regard to the Grand Orient, an equally tortuous policy was pursued.
As we have already seen, the Grande Loge disgraced the lodge that had
admitted Maria Deraismes and did not officially recognize the Maconnerie
Mixte. The ritual adopted by the latter Order was, however, not that of
British Masonry, and in most Co-Masonic Lodges the ritual employed
contains variations derived from the Grand Orient[709]; indeed the Grand
Orient character of Co-Masonry has always been generally recognized in
masonic circles. This being so, I pointed out in _World Revolution_ that
Co-Masonry derives from the Grand Orient, but I received the following
protest from a woman Co-Mason:

Are you aware that for twenty years the Grand Orient has refused to
recognize it [Co-Masonry] as a legitimate body, just as the English
Orthodox Masons do now? Also, we are distinctly told before joining
that we shall not be recognized by that body. Also, we have nothing
to do with Illuminati, or with Germany. As the Grand Orient have
eliminated the Deity, it is rather a dreadful thing to a Mason to
be connected in any way with that Order, and I cannot imagine a
worse thing could be said about us.

This letter was dated March 6, 1922, and on the 19th of the preceding
month of February an alliance between the Grand Orient and Co-Masonry
had been finally celebrated at the Grand Temple of the Droit Humain in
Paris! We find a report of this ceremony in the _Co-Mason_ for the
following April. It is evident, therefore, that members who were likely
to be repelled by the idea of connexion with the Grand Orient were
assured that no such connexion existed. But when this covert _liaison_
developed into official recognition--although this did not include the
right of entry to the lodges of the Grand Orient for women members--the
triumphant manner in which the great event was announced in the
_Co-Mason_ suggests that the majority of members were likely to feel
nothing but satisfaction at association with the Order that "had
eliminated the Deity." It is true that a few members protested, and by
this time Co-Masonry was too completely under the control of Mrs. Besant
for any faction to question her dictates. Moreover, the opposition had