TRANSOM—RAWSTON.

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 62, 11 September 1945, Page 10

TRANSOM—RAWSTON.

Mr. and Mrs. It. Itawstqn, of Wellington, wish to announce (he engagement of their only daughter, Joan Isabel, to Terence (Returned, Middle East),, eldest son of Mr. and the late Mrs. 1\ It. Transom, of "Te Rum," Talhane.

EVENING OF MUSIC

ARMED SERVICES ENTERTAIN

THE BLIND

Many blind people and their friends were present at the recent social evening held by the Wellington Social Club for the Blind. Special thought and preparation had been put into the programme of songs, duets, and choruses which had been arranged by members of the Armed Services Operatic Society, the items having been taken from the recent production "lolanthe." Sergeant-Major Dennison was compere. The principals, Ruth Claughton and Geo. Verrall, sang solos. Messrs. Ross Mazey and Nobby Bail duets, Ruth Claughton and Peter McConnel duets, the accompanist for the evening being Charm Barrow. An elocutionary item by Sergeant-Major Dennison was much enjoyed. The programme of games, dancing, and competitions arranged by Miss A. Wharton was as usual very much enjoyed by young and old.

In thanking the visiting artists on behalf of the blind people, Captain Bishop expressed the wi?h that at some future date the performance be repeated. An excellent ' supper was served by Mrs. Vrede and her helpers.

JAPANESE WOMEN

UNHAPPIEST IN WORLD

During the past two or three weeks much has been read about the cheerful Japanese who. smile even in the hour of defeat. Those who have studied them state that the people of Japan are never more subtle than when they smile.- Mrs. Helen Moscicki, who lived in Japan for three years, while her husband was Polish Minister there, says in an article in a London paper that in those three years she tried to understand Japanese women and to discover why they spoke of everything with the same smile, whether it was flowers or disaster.

"The women seemed to live behind the smile as though it were an impenetrable wall," she wrote. "To the

Japanese woman, who, I soon discovered, is among the unhappiest in the world, the highest achievement, and often an expression of great heroism, is to bear every sorrow and misfortune with a smile."

The writer described the Japanese woman as obedient, artificial, and, because of her training and environment, completely devoid of enterprise or individuality. In law she is not regarded as a person. When she marries she has no legal status whatever. She cannot divorce her husband, but he can divorce her simply by sending her back to her family. Whatever her family's position, the wife is always a slave. She is the first to rise in the morning and the last to retire. Even her pleasure in her children is restricted, because according" to the law they belong only to her husband.

"Once in a long while, when a Japanese wife can endure her life no longer, she tries to break away, but her attempt usually ends in the most abysmal tragedy." Mrs. Moscicki wrote. "The only sure release is suicide, and after living in Japan for several years one understands why self-destruction is surrounded with a halo of poetry- The fashionable spots for suicides are .always picturesque."