ASIAN STATES UNION

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28179, 18 January 1957, Page 2

ASIAN STATES UNION

PLAN OF LADY WINCHESTER (By SUSAN VAUGHAN) The Marchioness of Winchester is working on a plan for the formation of a union of Asian States along the lines of the Council of Europe. She has already discussed her plan with the Indian Prime Minister (Mr Nehru) and all members of the Indian Cabinet. Now she has sent an outline of her scheme to the heads of State in all the Communist and nonCommunist countries of Asia. It is a design for peaceful living and it would be a strictly cultural and economic organisation. “I want to keep politics out of it,” she says. In the meantime Lady Winchester is making another plan for the future —but one of a much more personal nature. She has bought two plots of ground in the city of Winchester on which she will build a monumental marble tomb. She was only 54 on Boxing Day, but she likes to make her plans well ahead. She has already announced that, when she dies, her estate will go to the city of Winchester. Lady Winchester, formerly Miss Bapsy Pavry. is the daughter of a high priest of the Parsees in India. She is the only Parsee in British nobility and the first Indian woman to become a marchioness. When she married the Marquess of Winchester in 1952. senders of messages of good wishes included Queen Mary. Lord and Lady Mountbatten and General Eisenhower. The Marquess is. at 94. Britain’s second oldest peer and the premier Marquess of England with a title dating back to the time of Henry VIII.

Offences With Witchcraft. — Nine Africans were sentenced to imprisonment from two to 10 years ivesterday for offences involving witchcraft. Four of the Africans were each sentenced to 10 years for attempted murder, while three got 10 years each for conspiring to murder. —Kolabo (Northern Rhodesia), January 16.