NO VENUE DECIDED

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32233, 27 February 1970, Page 3

NO VENUE DECIDED

■ When the International Council of Women’s triennial conference closed in Bangkok re-{ cently no venue for the 1973 meeting was arranged. The National Council of; Women in Thailand bad set such a high standard in organising the 1970 conference and in entertaining dele- \ gates that no other national; council presumably had the, confidence to offer itself as host for the next one. “The Thai women did al magnificent job,” said Mrs Doreen Grant, when she I

returned home from the con- v , ference. “Their efficiency in i organising the conference e and ensuring that it ran I c smoothly all the time made 4 delegates from the other c councils feel they could not e compete,” Nevertheless, a venue for t the 1973 conference would be; p arranged some time soon, she o I added. ; £ At the lavish banquets and a I other functions given andl o I attended by members of thei Thai Royal family, and top-;e i ranking Thai men and { c women, Mrs Grant noticed, h that a happy, relaxed atmos-! t I phere did not depend on { o alcoholic stimulation. g “Although glasses of weak (

whisky or gin and water were available at most of the entertainments, the majority of the guests from more than 40 countries chose fruit drinks or well-known brands of php,” she said. Very few New Zealand hostesses would dare hold a party of any size without offering alcoholic drinks, but Buddhists, who did not drink alcohol, were not in the habi of serving it. “When one considers with concern the frightening increase in the number of alcoholics in New Zealand, it is heartening to see that lack of alcohol does not lessen the guests’ enjoyment," Mrs Grant said.