Dispelling Ignorance

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31635, 22 March 1968, Page 2

Dispelling Ignorance

If ignorance about the Commonwealth is to be dispelled, the 27 Commonwealth countries must do more about presenting themselves to each other, Miss Katharine Winn said in Christchurch yesterday. Miss Winn, who is secretary of the speakers’ bureau at the London headquarters of the English-Speaking Union, said Australia House in London was setting an example in this way. Speakers attached to Australia House were specially selected for the job and travelled extensively in England giving talks to schools and organisations on modern Australia. They aroused considerable interest in their country and were doing an excellent job in promoting it to others. More Commonwealth countries should do the same, she said. “Sir Thomas Macdonald, the retiring New Zealand High Commissioner in London, has also done a great deal for New Zealand by giving talks about it,” she said. “I cannot speak too highly of him. He has addressed more branches of the EnglishSpeaking Union in Britain than any other High Commissioner.” The English - Speaking Union, which celebrates this year the fiftieth anniversary of its foundation in London,

makes a valuable contribution to strengthening bonds of comradeship in the Commonwealth and the United States. It sponsored scholarships, provided hospitality for visitors, and arranged for knowledgeable speakers to address branch meetings on problems within English-speaking countries. “The union also administers working visits to Australia for British students during their long vacations,” she said. “To get a real insight into Australia, the students are required to arrange jobs for themselves before they leave England. More than 100 go at a time in a chartered plane." The students have to work in Australia for most of the six weeks they are there, then they spend the last part of their visit sight-seeing on the money they have earned.

Working Trips Local branches of the union in Australia give them the contacts they need and entertain them. (The EnglishSpeaking Union in London does the same for visiting Winston Churchill fellows in providing them with any help they need.) “We hope these working visits will be extended to other Commonwealth countries and to the United States,” she said. Some of the more affluent British union branches send

parties of young men and women to the United States for fact-finding and sight-see-ing visits. “As soon as the visitors arrive, American branches put them in touch with their particular interests,” she said. "All these tours are excellent for promoting interest in the English-speaking countries among the younger generation,” she said. In London it is Miss Winn's job to inform union branches throughout the world when expert speakers on a Commonwealth or American topic will be visiting their countries. As secretary of a small advisory committee, headed by Air Marshal Sir John Slessor, she notifies American headquarters in New York when top speakers on British affairs will be available to them. Many of these speakers are fully sponsored by the American section of the organisation. Miss Winn is on a private world tour with three months leave of absence, but she is taking the opportunity of visiting branches along her route. “It is good to make personal contact with the people I write to so often from my office in London,” she said. She has also been looking up relatives in Melbourne, and a cousin in Christchurch, Mrs A. K. Warren.