AMONG OURSELVES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 164, 13 July 1928, Page 10

AMONG OURSELVES.

A WEEKLY BUDGET

(By CONSTANCE CLYDE.)

WOMEN JURORS REBUKED

Three women, summoned for jury service, were rebuked in England the other day. The reason of that censure will read strangely to New Zealand eyes. The women had based their plea that the case was a particularly unpleasant one. Says the "Women's Leader":—"A stern rebuke was administered to them by the Recorder, Sir Ernest Wild, K.C., as follows: "This is a case affecting the honour of young children, and I should have thought that women were the proper persons to serve. You shall be released, but I think your decision is deplorable.' Fortunately the places of two of the three shirkers were filled again by women." The interesting point in this incident is not so much that women were found to fail in their duty—this is not the monopoly of one sex alone —but that public opinion and the Press should so strongly have condemned them. Not many years ago their action might have been commended as showing suitable feminine mode6ty. CHINESE WOMEN. Foreign women going to China have, of course, more chance of understanding domestic life in that country than have men. Besides, in many cases, women go for that purpose, whereas the British man, there for commercial reasons, keeps largely to his own colour, and, anyway, sees little of home existence. Miss Edith Pye, in London, gave some account of Chinese conditions, she having just returned from visiting that country as the British member of a League of Friendship to Chinese women. There were many levels of civilisation noticeable in China. At its best, she said, education there surpassed anything in Western civilisation. The temperature of such schools is very low, as if in the open air, b u t she stated that the Chinese children, in their padded coats, thoroughly enjoyed this. She quoted a trenchant saying in that country: "The Chinese wear clothes; foreigners wear houses." The women themselves were touchingly eager and humble in their desire to learn from Western women. Miss Pye described an international meeting among them, when foreign women were present, and all were called upon for slogans. Many of these Chinese women knew and adopted the slogans that we think so Western: '"Equal Pay for Equal Work." "Equal Moral Standard for Men and Women." A special grievance, however, was theirs — the dominance of etiquette in their country. We know that the Chinese girl of good family has a most unhappy time learning the ceremonial of tea making and tea drinking, compared to which the stiffest court function, even of our awesome Victorian times, was informality itself. To the Englishwomen present the Chinese lady's rising passion against this "slavery" had an amusing ring. A BLUNDER EXPIATED "Having been such an idiot as to commit a moral and legal offence." So Dr. Dorothy Logan began her apology when "put on the carpet" by the General Medical Council, because of her hoax on the public with a bogus Channel swim. The council, after due consideraton, decided not to erase her name from the medical register. No one, of course, believes that she intended to keep up the hoax; in fact, the whole reason of it was to put the public wise as to the great danger of accepting false Channel swimmers, and the danger at that time was great. It is felt also that Dr. Logan has well atoned for her moral mistake by the scathing comments to which she * was subjected. The remembrance of this good lady, however, comfortably ensconced in her boat instead of struggling with the cold waves outside, will always arouse lively feelings, not altogether of reprobation. To do evil that good may come is recognised by all as bad ethics, and also, not so often noticed, leads to more evil in the end, as humorists have pointed out when arguing what the world would come to if we phoned false fire alarms to the fire brigade in order to see if they were up to their work, or so forth. LABOUR WOMEN IN COUNCIL. The latest great conference of the British Labour women showed them as dealing with practical matters in a practical way. Miss Bondfield took a high stand when she proclaimed that "individuals don't count for much in our movement." The real solution of the unemployment, she maintained, was the organisation of work for wages, not unemployment insurance. "We have invented many things in recent years," said another delegate, "telephones, television, wireless, and beam telegraphy. We have not y<-i invented the means of assuring a livelihood to every worker." Mrs. Runciman, the latest woman member,. made her maiden speech in the House on a Labour question, the abolishing of the slums. She has first-hand knowledge on the housing question, having been chairman of the Westminster Housing Association. ,