WOMEN AND WAR

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 86, 12 April 1941, Page 18 (Supplement)

WOMEN AND WAR

London is full of surprises these days. You get something of a start when a tall policeman, holding up the traffic for you at a busy corner, smilingly addresses you by your Christian name. The particular "bobby" who convoyed me through the traffic volunteered for a territorial regiment at the beginning of the war. But he is of ftalian parentage on his father's side, bears an Italian name, and was turned down. So he joined up in the police instead and likes it so well that he thinks of making it his [ profession.

In that case he will be somewhat of a poacher turned game-keeper, for lie was a rather wild youngster before the war. He gave me a big laugh once by his description of a "rag" at Oxford. He had dined not wisely but too well. In the resulting scuffle he found himself in a ditch full of water. When some of his fellow undergraduates tried to drag him out he objected. "No, no," he protested, "women and children first!" A New Countess London society scarcely knows, even by sight, the new Scottish peeress Diana, Countess of Erroll, who has succeeded to her father's earldom. For she is only a 15-year-old schoolgirl, a long way off making her debut. Scottish folk in London are interested, however, in the proud position which the office she inherits with her title—that of Hereditary High Constable of Scotlandgives her. By virtue of it she becomes the first subject in the country over the border, and on any State occasion there she would take precedence, after members of the Royal Family, of any other Scottish personage holding aii hereditary honour. The new countess is a niece, on the maternal side, of Earl de la Warr, whose family tree is as old as her own.

Village Theatres The trebling of the population in manyrural areas consequent on the evacuation is having consequences which may long outlast the war. I know of one small hamlet where 12 months ago there was no cinema and where even a concert in the local school was an event. Now it organises its own plays—run very modestly it is true, but not wholly depending on amateur talent. The moving spirit a; the outset was a young actress bombed out of her London home, but the movement she has started will spread and may not be without effect on. the future of British drama-

From Our London Lady Correspondent

A Cultured People

The second floor of the Czechoslovak Institute will be used by the Czechs for their club meetings and other gatherings. Here, too, is the ladies' room and nearby a well fitted bathroom. It all sounds rather expensive, but Mr. Ronald Jl radon, of the British Council, spent a month going to sales of antiques and .selecting, with his connoisseur's eve, such pieces as lie knew would fit into his scheme to produce a home of which ain one must be proud. There is a parquetry cabinet, inlaid inside and out, which he picked up for £.">, though it would normally have cost over £50. Another enormous carved cabinet, part of which is in the hall, while the remainder graces one of the reception rooms, is 16 feet long and nine feet high. It cost £1. An antique cabinet, with original Gothic glass doors, was secured for £4 10/, and a couple ol Dutch antique chairs cost 5/ each. Even the large Persian carpet, in lovely faded colourings, which graces the drawing room, holding a place of honour anion" smaller ones, Mr. Braden picked up for £7. "The Czechs are cultured people," lie said. "They shall have a cultured home."