OVERSEAS LEAGUE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 113, 14 May 1936, Page 12

OVERSEAS LEAGUE.

RECEPTION TO LADY ALLEN. Lady Sandeman Allen, of London, was the guest of honour nt a reception given by members of the Overseas League in their rooms yesterday afternoon. Masse* of golden chrysanthemums and foliage adorned the room. Mrs. ,T. T. F. Mitchell, vice-president, extended a welcome to the guest and made her a presentation of a shouiuer-spray of orchids on behalf of the members. Lady Allen gave a vivid account of Jubilee Week in London, and of the opening of the Women's Imperial Club, which is an association designed to unite professional women from all parts of the Empire. This club, she said, will also foster the Children's Imperial Fund, which is intended to promote the interchange of young people between the Home Country and the Dominions. At present, Lady Allen said, there were 10 English boys visiting Canada under this scheme and a similar number of Canadian boys visiting England, and the promoters of the scheme hoped to make it possible for the children to travel without any cost to their parents. On "the subject of Germany, Lady Allen was particularly interesting. Not only has she lived in Germany for two years, .but she has visited it very frequently in the last ten or fifteen years, and has noticed many revolutionary changes. "The mothers and fathers in Germany are going through a sad time just now," she said. "Their children are in uniform and Saturday, which was formerly a family day, is now called Hitler's day. As soon as the children leave high school they, are sent to a communal camp for six months where they are all mixed together, irrespective of class or type. The parents feel that the children no longer belong to them, but to Hitler and the State." The older people, she said, also felt that the system of pensioning at 45 or 50 was not in the best interests of the .country. The children and young people, however, were very happy. In the course of a 'bright and vivid account of some of the peculiarities and characteristics of the many countries in Europe that she had visited, Lady Allen made a plea to the women of New Zealand to see that languages were learnt more freely. "Y6u think that you are too far away out here for languages to: matter," she said, "but you have no guarantee that your children will always be in New Zealand. Without a knowledge of other languages, you miss all the intimacies of home and family life when you are travelling. Languages, too, help to give you better understanding of foreigners." Hungary, Austria, Czeclio-Slovakia, Rumania and Poland were all described with keen insight and humour. Before Lady Allen's address, pianoforte solos were rendered by Mrs. A. Beniams.