"CINDERELLA OF EMPIRE"

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 109, 9 May 1923, Page 13

"CINDERELLA OF EMPIRE"

LADY SQUIRES ON FUTURE OF

NEWFOUNDLAND,

Lady Squires, wife of th« Prime Minister of Newfoundland, gave a lecture on "Women's Work ,in Newfoundland," at a meeting arranged by the British Wo. men's Patriotic League, says the London "Times."

Sir Cecil Hafcourt Smith, who presided, said.that in Victorian days patriotism was assumed, but times had changed, and now the discussion and teaching of patriotitm seemed to be desirable, and even necessary. One reason lay in the growth of pernicious doctrines, whether called Marxianism, Socialism, or what they pleased. The; people who preached these doctrines said patriotism wan a curse, and the cause of all wars. Nothing could be more pernicious. We had a great deal to learn from the Dominions, where the sacred flame of patriotism burned as strongly, if not more strongly, than in England. Lady Squires said the two main facts as affecting women in Newfoundland were that they had not the vote, and that there was no divorce law, though a legal separation could be obtained if considered necessary. There was now a movement to secure votes for women, but the speaker thought the reason wa« not that their women wera keenly interested in politics; but that they felt that women's suffrage was a world-wide movement, and they did not want their island to be behind.

The war brought together all the women of the island into a Women's Patriotic Association, with headquartere at St. Johns, and this organisation did valuable work in' providing comforts for the troope. Though ifc did not now exist as such, as some of the moving spirits had hoped, there had grown from it a- new organisation carrying on child welfare and other useful activities. Unemployment in Newfoundland was one of trie effects of the war, and consequently they were not looking for immigrants. They wanted., however, enterprise and capital.

Year by year America was securing markets in Newfoundland that had formerly been British preserves, because America studied, and catered for, the needs of the Newfoundlanders. The English commercial attitude was one of "Take what we offer, or leave it." English business methods seemed to ,be antiquated, and Englishmen would not stir themselves to alter them. The Dominions wanted to do business with the Mother Country, but they could not wait indefinitely. An American, after a stay in Newfoundland, stated that he found evidence of a feeling among the islanders that, they would like their island to become the forty-ninth of the United States. The speaker did not believe that that statement wbs altogether justified; but certainly sympathy had grown among her people towards America. The average Englishman seemed unable to understand the.-i Dominion point of view so well as. did the average American.

Sh« was hopeful, however, of the great water-power development schemes for Newfoundland at present contemplated by the British firm of Messrs. Armstrong, Whitworth, and Co. The Cinderella of the Empire seemed about to be found by her fairy prince at last.