"ROUND THE WORLD"

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 127, 22 February 1939, Page 4

"ROUND THE WORLD"

Part Played By Y.W.C.A. In Many Countries The business girls of the Y.W.C.A. gave a reception last night in the Blue Triangle Hall to welcome Miss Ruth Woodsmall, the world secretary of the association, wlw is visiting New Zealand. The meeting began witli a very effective Maori welcome by members of the Rangatahi party, who sang a traditional song (I .of welcome to the official party, which consisted of Miss Woodsmall, Mrs. R. Gardner, Dr. Sylvia Chapman. Mrs. Avanijp, Miss Ethel Law, Miss L. W. Bridgman, Miss Helen Macdonakl, Miss Jean Campbell and Miss Lilian Dick. A special welcome was extended to Miss Woodsmall and also to Miss Bridgman, who has recently returned from the world conference in Canada; Miss Campbell who has recently arrived from Vancouver to take up the position of assistant national secretary, and Miss Macdonald, the new physical director. Mrs. Avanne, who is chairman of ti e activities committee, presided, and in introducing Miss Woodsmall she pointed out. that as a member of the world staff she brought borne to them the international conception of the YIV C.A. Miss Woodsmall’s address was entitled “Round the World on a Health Cruise.’! - • This was physical fitness week, said Mrs. Avanne, and the Y.W.C.A. bad always been a leader of physical fitness ia the community. Miss Woodsmall spoke of the work of the association in many parts of the world. “TJie Y.W.C.A. has an international, idea of national fitness,” she said, “and contributes something to it that is deeper than the physical idea.” She spoke >of a Rumanian Jewess whom she had- met on the boat in which she travelled from India to Australia. This young woman had had to leave her counLry but she eat lied with her a letter of farewell from the many members of a Y.W.C.A. “keepfit.” class to wljiclx she had belonged. The consciousness '-of fellowship had been more important to her than the physical exercise. In her “tour” of the world Miss Woodsmall began--jylth England, where, three years ago, sl?e had been present at the demonstration celebrating the eightieth birthday of the association, and in which 800 i girls took part. In Turkey the movement was very much younger, she said. She had been in the East during tl»e»ten years after the war and seen the HW.C-A. as a pioneer, ready to play its* part in the great movement in Turkey to break down its worn-out traditions;. Ten years ago it had been extremely difficult to persuade parents to ajllow their daughters to do anything as ,alarming as swimming, but today mljxed bathing pools were quite commqjn in Istanbul. The movement was flourishing in Syria also, and here, each sun>mer, camps were held under the cedars of Lebanon, and to them camp girls from as far away as Palestine and In India the association was playing its part in the tijamsformation fiotn veiled obscurity, wJhijcb ifor so long has been the lot of th,e- Mohammedan women. New Zealajqd was closely interwoven with the Y.W.C.A. in India, added Miss Woodsiifiall, for the general secretary was a Zealander, Miss Jean Begg. The women of ISfrprtn and China were very much freer iVan in India, she said, hut in Japan, ■their lives a stereotyped quality,* and the Y.W.C.A. was pioneering fax:, something not bound by convention and giving opportunity for expression of personality. In China the influence of the association could be seep in refugee camps, where it was helpilng the woman to build up tlieir moqale. After Miss AVoo<l)small’s speech songs and poi dances ’were given by the Rangatahi Miss E. Bennell, senior girls’ activUlfes secretary, gave an outline of the xpinter programme, and the final itenr for the evening was a presentation hr, the club members of a pageant of their activities, entitled “Doorways ito* Health.”