WOMEN THE WORLD OVER

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21904, 3 October 1936, Page 3

WOMEN THE WORLD OVER

" (BmCUI<X.T WSTITB* VOX TSCB ?&ZSV.) : (By ATALANTA.J ", -• * i f SThere are various pickings of-inter-est in the “International Women’s News’* of last month. The women of Sweden are making strenuous- efforts to get a place in the sun, as represented by the very active radios board. -Theyi.have not yet succeeded in get-, ting women appointed members of this body, but seemingly are still working for „ that- and positions among the higher radio officials. They are far on the,,-way, however, and have three women already on a secondary board. The women of Norway are always a little in advance Of the bigger neighbour they have not. only the positions gained on the lesser board and among the less important places as lecturers, but have a member on Norway’s main (or only) radio board, duly appointed by the Government. The strenuous work put through by Scandinavian women in this conn ’shows how clearly they apprehend the new educative and social force embodied in this radio movement of our Turning to the women of a far other clime, one reads with a certahi surprise that the daughters of Ceylon, See supremely to toe Eastern Oult of Buddha (a friend to women),! are becoming vote-conscious + . in toe * plain political manner of . toe West. They are working commendably for women, charged with offences— keeping the newly charged from contact with hardened, breakers of the law and are putting forth strong efforts towards maternity benefits and for factory legislation. We, Britons hardly realise what a burning question factory conditions and industrial progress have- become ,to . the women of these densely populated Eastern areas of manufacturing, activity. The work of Dame Adelaide Anderson, a one-time visitor here; among the women operatives of China will rise to mind, and , activities were under toe approving support of the Chinese, Govern-. ■ ment .of toat oarUer . time. This women’s pbliticai ; union of Ceylom is; already deep in a needed struggle for chfldretfs courts, t The same wind is; blowing free for uplift and protection both in the fields of Europe and of the toiling Orient. We humans can play apart, but it is plain we cannot work apart. Country Women in Council A landslide in women’s affairs is reported. from America on the occasion Of the third congress of the Country Women of the World. This sounds epochal. God made the country, man made the town is a proverb honoured in such application. The rural women of : the United States, we_are told, poured into Washingt. a 7000 strong. Accommodation was strained and President and Mrs Roosevelt entertained the delegates at a White House garden party—some garden party, we must admit! It is good to hear that they were also taken on tour and passed across the Peace Bridge into Canada, and here Mrs l Alfred toe president.: was presented with a replica of toe tablet to life affixed to toe Undge to # commernbrate this gigantic trek of toe country.-women of to® world. But that was but a beginning of their progress north of the St Lawrence. At. Guelph College of Agriculture, 6000 were entertained at a picnic lunch, and , the tour' ended with a party given by toe Governor-General and his wife.. I heed riot remind my readers that the present holder of that high office is Lord Tweedsmuir, a name which we are trying to remember hides toe identity of John Buchan, toe wellknown novelist—-a man of many parts. Canada was served on this occasion, as we suppose Britain loves her. . The wily woman member m the preceding Belgian Parliament, Isabella Blume, has just been returned at the recent elections. She had beeh reinforced by another woman law-maker, who failed to. gain q seat this year Belgium, we are reminded, is the topsy tUrvey country where women may beelected but cannot vote, save on account of war 1 service or war injury. But that, as we recently noted m the of France, is a situation that cannot last. Belgium, indeed, marches step by step with France on many lines, and will on this. Women and the League Some of my readers iiiay be enquiring whether there are any women oh toe League of Nations Assembly We hear mothing of them, but undoubtedly there are. The latest issue of toe “International Women s News reports" toe address delivered before the Assembly last June by Miss Kerstin Hesselgren, of Sweden She and Miss Forchammer, of Denmark, seem to-be toe only two women members;T have not heard why the, wealthier—it is difficult to say leading—European powers are not sending any of their women at this crucial time. Miss Hesselgren, an able battler for peace and social justice, had evidently felt the preceding adjournment of - the Assembly after toe Ethiopian debacle to be characteristically “dithering.-’ Her words are ’memorable. Speaking;-for women at large, she pointed out-rtoft she had listened without profit ;apd Without hope to those "fine and dfe*. quent • speeches.” Fifty ■ nations had given in to one aggressor. Fifty nations let a small State, one, of their own members, fall to toe ground. What hope for any small country henceforth? Not many years before toe League had asked for the collaboration of women. They responded in millions by speech and by signed petitions, asking for disarmament. What followed was rearmament all over the world. Yet women felt hope when those 50 nations, stood to help a small member of the league. But the result was worse than nothing. Belief in the league was shaken to its foundations. Each small nation asked itself in despair when its turn would come. What could toe League do? It .must go* to toe very root of the evil, try to find toe source of the trouble; try to take toe dispute in hand at once, not let month after month go by in futile discussion. Prevention and the education of* nations must .proceed on expressed lines of goodwill. Then women would gladly collaborate in a work of reality. She could not advise the League, or tell it how to act: she could but voice the anguish of women throughout the world, and urge it to seek a solution. > Here, indeed,. Kerstin Hesselgren speaks for all women who can think. To what purpose is this interminable, washy, futile flood of man-talk let loose on a dazed, terrified world? She did not end by saying. “Stay at home: send your women to Geneva instead, and See what may happen.” . But how ’many of us must have thought it, Coimtry Women in Congress Probably some of my readers have --anticipated my direction of their' attention to a recent meeting of country women in this city by having attended it. It was a combined gathering of members from the Women’s Division of . the New Zealand Farmers' 1 -Union arid Women’s Institutes who came to listen to Miss McMillan, a travelled -expert on country education, and Miss B. Asple. of Texas, now stodyingNewZealandworkin tola