ARRIVAL THIS WEEK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 118, 21 May 1945, Page 3

ARRIVAL THIS WEEK

MISS JEAN STEVENSON

DUE BACK FROM INDIA

Seven years ago, after retiring from the position of national Y.W.C.A. secretary in New Zealand, Miss Jean Stevenson left the Dominion on what she intended should be a leisurely trip to the East. Instead she has been working hard all of that time, mainly in Burma and India. Miss Stevenson's deferred retirement will start when she returns to New Zealand, arriving in Auckland this week.

Associated with Y.W.C.A. work for the past 30 years, Miss Stevenson is one of its best-known workers and has friends in many lands. After leaving New Zealand, she visited Java and Malaya, where the urge to be of service resulted in her taking posts in both these places. From there she went to Burma, thence to India, where she has been stationed in Calcutta, Lahore, Delhi and latterly, Madras, as a Y.W.C.A. general secretary. With the fall of Malaya, much of her work in India has been with refugees. She has been associated with Burmese, Indians, Anglo-Indians and Europeans, her long experience with Y.W.C.A. activities fitting her well to undertake this work among groups of people, which, to an inexperienced woman might have meant many difficulties. In 1938 Miss Stevenson arrived in Burma, where the Y.W.C.A. has been working for 50 years. When the Y.W.C.A. staff moved on to India after the occupation, she went to Calcutta, which has also seen 50 years of Y.W.C.A- work. Then followed Delhi, for six months and at the end of 1942, Miss Stevenson went to Madras, where she has worked for the last two and a half years.

I Member of a well-known Dunedin family, Miss Stevenson intends to spend the first three weeks on her return, visiting her family, including her mother, who is now over 90 years of age. The last half of June will be spent in Auckland for the Y.W.C.A. jubilee, at which she will be the special guest of honour. Miss Stevenson-was once a general secretary for the Auckland - association. After that she will visit her sister, Mrs. W. A. Armour, Napier, where she will have the opportunity of seeing the association there, established since she left New Zealand. The last two weeks of July will be spent in Wellington and the first half of August, in Christchurch. Miss Stevenson, for the last few months of the year, will conduct the administration and finance section of the Y.W.C.A. training course being heldj this year in Dunedin. I