TRAVEL CLUB

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28889, 8 May 1959, Page 2

TRAVEL CLUB

Address By Lady Mallaby

An impressionistic account of the course of Empire was given by Lady Mallaby to the Canterbury Travel Club yesterday morning. It was baffling to consider the hatred behind the recent African cataclysm in view of the respect given to British officials formerly stationed there, she said. “Which way Africa is heading? We do not know.” As the bride of a District Commissioner in Nyasaland, Lady Mallaby experienced unfailing care and courtesy from the African “boys” who did the domestic work. Admittedly they “put fast ones’” across her sometimes, she said. Once the doves disappeared from the dovecote in her cultivated garden. “Snakes got them all.” said the boy, and promised to find some more, which he did the next day. “He had simply netted them and sold them to me again,” said Lady Mallaby

The district commissioner’s promise to give a tax rebate to natives who did not throw newlyborn twins, considered unlucky, to the wild animals, was met with hopeful maternal attempts to match up babies and enjoy the tax immunity.

Malta during the war was not a comfortable place to live. It was always noisy and either intensely hot. or cold, or damp, j With the continual raids, residents lived most of the time like troglodytes in underground shelters. Lady Mallaby has vivid memories of the gallantry of the unified Maltese and British defence of the island. Respect for British In spite of the economic, social and religious tensions of India obvious to a British resident at the time the country gained independence, Indian officials had the highest opinion of British. political and administrative skill, said Lady Mallaby. “Indian officials would come to us for advice, or even to ask for advice. or information from Whitehall through us,” she said. To conclude her talk, Lady . Mallaby gave a kaleidoscopic glimpse of London which she visited briefly last year. She lunched with Lord Freyberg and Lady Freyberg in the Norman Tower at Windsor Castle, had tea with Lady Dorothy Macmillan at 10 Downing Street, and visited Oxford, whose buildings she found were being beautifully repaired. “There has been a most generous response to the appeal for the preservation fund,” she said.

The meeting expressed its pleasure at the recent news Lady Mallaby had received. Her son, Timothy, arrived home from Cyprus, had been mentioned in dispatches.

Songs were given by Miss H Hayward accompanied by Miss A. Harley-Slack, and the following guests were welcomed to meeting:—Mrs J. McCaskill (Sydney), Mrs B. Wisely (Sydney), Mrs B. C. Haggit (Auckland). Mrs A. Stout (Wellington), Mrs M. K. Thompson, and Miss D. B. McLean (Timaru), Mrs J. C. Glendining (Dunedin), and Mrs W. Bagrie (Akaroa).