WORK FOR PEACE

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22367, 2 April 1938, Page 3

WORK FOR PEACE

MISS COURTNEY’S VISIT CHAMPIONSHIP OP DEMOCRACY (By ANNE PAGE.) Miss Courtney’s recent visit to Christchurch was an event that will not be quickly forgotten. Her crowded meetings showed how anxiously we are all following world events and how eager we are for an improvement in international relations. At a time when many people find their faith in peace organisations wearing a little thin, it was encouraging to learn that these bodies are facing their task with greater determination than ever. Indeed the very fact that a woman of Miss Courtney’s outstanding ability came as a representative ox these organisations is an assurance ox their vitality. This is not a propitious moment for peace work, and such activities seem unfruitful. But, in the long run, they are unquestionably valuable. How much more hopeless must have seemed the task of the peace organisations which carried on their work during the great war. And yet. when peace came, rather unexpectedly at the last, these workers and thinkers suddenly stepped into the limelight as the only people prepared to meet the situation. It was on the basis of the work of these bodies, in England, France, and America, that the League Covenant was drafted. The message which I felt Miss Courtney brought with her was not that peace organisations had proved useless, but that the need for their work was greater than ever. It is therefore necessary that we should discover where our work for peace has failed and how it can be made more effective. The present international situation seems first of all to challenge us to indulge in a little self-examination.' It is so easy always to blame other people and other countries for every calamity. Governments always dress up their actions so that they look, at any rate, respectable, and if possible, benevolent. So ii often needs hard work to bring to light the faults and failings of one’s own country. Foreign newspapers, which can be very revealing, unfortunately seldom circulate here.

A Woman Delegate to Geneva I was glad that Miss Courtney made the suggestion that there should be a woman in the New Zealand delegation to the League Assembly. She did this, not because o£ any theories about women having a peculiar and distinctive service to render to the peace of the world; but because she believed this great task demanded the combined efforts of both men and women. The day is past when women can be content to leave “public affairs” to men in return for their support and protection. Modern warfare involves everyone, whether they like it or not. This being so, women should surely have their share in making or preventing wars. In supporting Miss Courtney’s suggestion, I do not propose that a woman should be added to the New Zealand delegation just "because she is a woman,” in order that “the woman’s noint of view” should be represented I support it because there are a number of able and well-informed New Zealand women who could profitably represent their country at Geneva. I feel sure I am right in saying that more women than men in New Zealand belong to international and peace organisations. Among the leaders of these organisations are women with a lifetime of work and experience that would well fi’t them to fill such a position. Champion of Democracy It seemed to me particularly appropriate that, at her last meeting. Miss Courtney spoke as the champion of democracy. If life for everyone is, as she contended, better under a democratic government than under Communism, Fascism, or Nazism, certainly it is better for women. Women’s political rights were first recognised in British democratic countries; and still

I think, we of those countries have greater freedom than even the women of Russia, to live according to our individual tastes. Theoretically, of course, Communism gives women complete political and economic equality with men. Russia has no restrictions limiting the scope of women’s activities or regulations prescribing lower rates of pay for women, such as still exist in both England and New Zealand. Very often, however, the much advertised freedom of Russian women seems to mean that every woman must enter industry if she is not to incur the grave displeasure of the State. The same sort of social pressure has been used in Germany to withdraw women from industry. In both countries little consideration is shown for the preferences of women as individuals. The state wants’workers, or the state wants the jobs for men, or the state wants babies; and women must be employed unemployed, or married to order. We, on the other hand, may have our careers, within limits, or we may be domesticated and look after our homes. And if the pblicy that the Government has expressed in the new Education Bill becomes generally effective. those of us who wish will be able to combine marriage and a career. In so far as we still suffer from handicaps and discriminations the remedy lies in our own hands. We have the vote.