A SHORT VISIT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 25, 29 July 1943, Page 6

A SHORT VISIT

MISS JEAN BEGG IN LONDON (Special P.A. Correspondent.) LONDON, July 26. A New Zealand wonian with 400 hours of flying time in the Middle East has arrived in London far a short visit. She is Miss Jean Begg, Dunedin, director of the Y.W.C.A. in the Middle East and North Africa. For three years she has been directing residential clubs and desert recreation clubs for women serving in the forces. Her headquarters have been in Cairo. She is hoping to establish clubs both in Malta and Sicily. It is for an extension of Y.W.C.A. services that she is now conferring with a committee in London. . Miss Begg, who spent five years in India before she went to the Middle East, gained her flying time visiting various centres in North Africa. Palestine, Iraq, Persia, and Eritrea. "We have 18 clubs throughout the Middle East, where we try to provide a homely, quiet atmosphere, entirely different from military camps," she said. "Our entire success has rested in the fact that girls may bring-men friends of any rank into the clubs, and the girls are proud to bring men friends, who have even spent the night sleeping on hearthrugs. "Recently a New Zealand sister asked if she could bring a guest. She.arrived with nine New Zealand soldiers, who were walking cases in her ward. They celebrated one boy's birthday. We have also married quarters where a husband and wife can spend their leave, and our club at Ismailia is nicknamed 'Honeymoon Centre."' Miss Begg has the distinction of being the only civilian woman member of the Middle East Welfare Council. It has been her responsibility to select and start the various Y.W.C.A. clubs and organise their maintenance