Weather Too Cool For Diplomat’s Wife

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28750, 22 November 1958, Page 2

Weather Too Cool For Diplomat’s Wife

While Christchurch housewives complained of the heat yesterday as they walked round the city with their Friday shopping baskets, a Malayan visitor slipped on a jacket as she left her hotel because she felt eold. “We are used to humid heat that goes up from 78 to 90 degrees; this cool breeze and sunshine is very pleasant,” said Datin Gunn Lay Teik, the petite wife of the High Commissioner for Malaya in Australia and New Zealand. Chinese by race and Malayan by nationality, Mrs Gunn was educated at a United States Methodist mission school in Kuala Lumpur and learnt to speak English there. Before the Japanese occupation of Malaya, when her children were young, she was an active member of the Women’s Service League. Later, she devoted her time to helping improve the health of mothers and children, working as a volunteer at infant welfare centres, which are established throughout the Malayan Federation. Because she speaks several Chinese dialects, Mrs Gunn's job at the Kuala Lumpur centre was to record names and case histories of patients for doctors’ reference. Infant Welfare “These centres for the poor are organised by the Government,” she said. “Mothers are given advice before and after their babies

are born and they are helped to take care of their infants in the right way.” Since she has been living in Canberra, where her hu.band is stationed, Mrs Gunn has had no time to take up welfare work, but hopes to get the opportunity. “We have been on the move all the time and I have been ba-k to Malaya twice since my husband's present appointment, to attend two of my daughters' weddings,” she said. Two Daughters One of her daughters, who was married in September, is a qualified barrister and the first woman to become a town and State councillor in Malaya. Another daughter, who studied domestic science in England, is married to a doctor in Malaya. The pale blue Swiss linen ensemble patterned with a small black leaf design, which Mrs Gunn wore yesterday, was an attractive compromise between eastern. and western dress. The slim-fitting frock—a Chinese “cheong sum."—had a high mandarin collar and split skirt, a style that has become popular in western fashion. Her matching jacket was trimly tailored.