NEW WOMEN'S CLUB.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 260, 2 November 1935, Page 20

NEW WOMEN'S CLUB.

ADDRESS ON PEACE. The speaker at the afternoon meeting on Friday was Mrs. Hedda Dyson, editress of the "New Zealand Woman's Weekly," who spoke upon the subject of '•Women in World Peace," explaining the origin of the pugnacious instinct in man, and tracing it back to the earliest development of the human community. "The pacifist ideal was by no means a

' new phase," observed the speaker Amongst the Roman emperors Trajanus . had been the most ardent pacifist, while Grotius, 300 years ago, paid the penalty of lifelong exile for his pacifist writing'; , in which the doctrine of'arbitration was expounded. Mrs. Dyson further gave a sliort resume of the history of peace 1 movements, expatiating on the more . recent organisations, "The Intcrnationa [ League for Peace and Freedom." "The , National Peace Council of Greai Britain," and "World Peaceways." Tlk speaker further dwelt on the economic i conditions of the world to-day, giving . details of the stupendous profits rcapet i by the armament factories during the . last war, which in certain cases ir . 1017-18 in America, amounted to 300 c per cent. "Cenotaphs and monuments , have been erected to the 'Unknown Sol ! dior,' " the speaker said, "but no moniz- ■ ment has yet been raised for the ! 'Unknown Merchant,' although his share in present warfare is of even greater and more destructive importance." Wonderful work towards the establishment of world peace haC already been done by women, and in this respect the speaker referred to Bertha von Suttnor, Vera Brittain, Aletta Jacobs, Jane Addams and Estelle M. Stemborger. The speaker urged co-operation of all women in work for peace and suggested support of existing organisations, insistence of Pacifist education for the young, the study of economics and politics and, last but not least, economic boycott through the medium of powerful women's organisations and the spreading of a w'ider knowledge of the principles of the peace ideal. At the weekly luncheon talk on Tuesday, Mr. J. W. Kealy spoke on Dr. Cronin's book, "The Stars Look Down." The main theme of the address was the author's plea for the nationalisation of coal mining. Dr. Cronin was the author of the famous "Hatters Castle."