WELFARE WORK IN FAR EAST

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 14570, 14 January 1948, Page 2

WELFARE WORK IN FAR EAST

ENGLISHWOMAN IN TAURANGA

Favourable Impressions

Of Town

New Zealand People Unpretentious

Although Tauranga was very unlike an English seaside town it was a delightful and beautiful place, said Mrs L. Cook, an Englishwoman who arrived in New Zealand a short time ago, after carrying out welfare work- in the Far East among British troops. She left her home in London in 1945 for India, and flew from there to Rangoon in Burma, where she served as an officer of the Women’s Voluntry Services in canteens and clubs foi the trooos. Mrs Cook also visited China, Maylaya and Borneo. She spoke highly of the people of Burma in an interview with the Bay of Plenty Times. They were a cultured, artistic and well-man-nered race, she said, and at no time during her stay there did the people give her the impression that they were anti-British. Thoughts, of self-government were already evident in the minds of the Burmese when she arrived, however. Mrs Cook expressed surprise that New Zealand was so up-to-date. She had. imagined much smaller streets, and when in Wellington, was surprised that the principal buildings were so imposing. Her enthusiasm about her train journey in the Limited Express was not so marked, however. She was very favourably impressed with the New Zealand people, and found them unpretentious, friendly and helpful. New Zealand visitors would find things rather difficult in London, where strangers do not speak to other strangers “ever,” she added. The position was the reverse in the Dominion. New Zealand’s climate \vas Mrs Cook’s main reason for coming here. She was amazed at the amount of food that New Zealanders ate, and was equally surprised to see the amount of work that the women had to do. Mrs Cook arrived in New Zealand after a six weeks’ trip from Singapore, and after a short stay in Wellington, journeyed to Tauranga where she hopes to spend a long holiday. She intends to live in the Dominion if she can obtain a position as a welfare officer here.