Commonwealth Travel

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31521, 8 November 1967, Page 2

Commonwealth Travel

When travelling in Commonwealth countries, Miss Norma Stewart, of Calgary, Canada, feels she has “one foot in the door” as soon as she arrives.

Another Commonwealth country seemed to be the logical starting point in an overseas tour for anyone who lived within the association of nations, she said in Christchurch yesterday. “We speak a common language, and we have the same traditions and heritage,” she said. “A cousinly feeling helps you get to know the people—the individuals who make up a country. And the first step toward international understanding, is the exchange of ideas.” Miss Stewart’s present Commonwealth itinerary includes New Zealand, Australia, Ceylon, and Hong Kong. She hopes to visit African countries later. A junior high school teacher in Calgary, Alberta, Miss Stewart specialised in Commonwealth countries for a social studies course some years ago. To do her present tour she took a year’s leave of absence without pay. First-hand “I wanted to get an idea of the geography of the countries as well as meet the people, and the way to do that is to find out first-hand,” she said. ‘Tm not an expert on the Commonwealth, I’m just a curious tourist.” A strong feeling of nationalism was growing in Canada,

which had been given a boost by the recent adoption of a distinctive Canadian flag. “And at this period in our history we need to maintain an international outlook. This can be done very effectively through Commonwealth membership,” she said. Miss Stewart feels it is wrong to put too much emphasis on the importance of trade as a Commonwealth link. Of much more value in an association of equal partners was the consultative link from governmental to a people-to-people level in human relationships. The avenue of consultation and all forms of technical assistance to developing mem-

ber states were the points of real value, she said. Although Canada was not a leading world power, it played a strong role in international negotiations within the Commonwealth and beyond it. “Canada provides the talking line between the United States and Cuba, for instance,” she said.

Mixed Heritage Canadians were proud of their mixed, international heritage, although it brought problems—the thorniest one being the French-Canadian Separatist Movement. “The generally held belief is that the hard-core Separatists are in the minority in Quebec," she said. “But this British and French tussle has been with us for 200 years and we are not going to solve it overnight.”