TWO QUEENS' INTEREST

Evening Star, Issue 22578, 20 February 1937, Page 24

TWO QUEENS' INTEREST

WOMEN AUTHORS' EXHIBITION While the-women of the-world- were conferring recently at Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia, discussing problems which they held to be of , vital'importance to'.the balance of world, affairs, two queens were following the proceedings with;in-, tense interest, writes a European correspondent in ‘The Christian Science Monitor.’ From their villa by the sea, some 30 miles distant from the place where the International Council of Women was in session, the two queens, Marie of Yugoslavia and her mother, Marie of Rumania', received reports of what was,going forward, discussing them between themselves. A ROYAL INVITATION. So interested did the Queens become that not only did they invite the conference delegates to visit them, but they actually summoned a ship of the Yugoslav navy to carry them the 30 miles to Dubrovnik in order that they might see for themselves some of the interesting happenings. _ Dubrovnik is a walled city. No wheeled vehicle can enter its narrow gateways. So, when the two Queens arrived, they traversed the streets,; on foot, while the young people of the city, clad in gay folk costume and; waving flags, lined the route,, throwing them the patriotic greeting, “ Zhivila ” “ long life to you!” BOOKS BY WOMEN AUTHORS. One of the departments of the conference which drew' much appreciation from the two Queens was that of the exhibition of books, written by women authors, which had been gathered together on the instigation of Grace Thompson Seton, of the United States. Dr Louise C. Ball, of New York City, the acting president of- the American delegation to the conference, was struck by the display of interest and, on a swift decision, asked the Queen of Yugoslavia whether she would not accept three of the books as gifts to her three boys. “ PLEASE THANK AMERICA.” ‘ Daddy Long Legs,’ by Jean Webster, was chosen for the 13-year-old King Peter, Monica Shannon's ‘ Dobry ’ went to Prince Tomislav, while to little Prince Andrew was assigned ‘ The Cat Who Went to Heaven,’ written by Elizabeth Coatsworth and illustrated by Lynd Ward. . The young Queen was obviously couched by the gifts. “ 1 have been wanting that splendid book for my Peter for a long time,” she said, “ and my baby Andrew adores animal stories. As for Tomislav, the illustrations will delight him.” And “ We are grateful to you, added the Queen of Rumania. “ You could not have pleased us both more.” “MOTHER OF THE LEAGUE?” The Marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair, who has been president of the

council since 1893 with two short intervals, stressed in an address during the conference that the council—ever since those pioneer women of America, Susan B. Anthony, May Wright Sewall, Anna Shaw, and others, founded it in 1888— had stood for peace. And at no time in its history, she said, had the clear understanding of peace been more sorely needed than now. The council, Lady Aberdeen said, had been called the “ Mother of the League of Nations,” and surely the League needs a little “ mothering” when it is being attacked by people who forget that it-is not the League itself that has failed, but those who were pledged to support it. “Let it at least be known,” Lady Aberdeen continued, “ that the women of all nations who formed their own league 48 years ago, with the same purpose, are true to their undertaking. A DISTINGUISHED RECORD, Baronne Boel, the new president, has been a worker with the international council since 1906, and has served both as vice-president and as president of her own national branch over a number of years. She is president, too, of the National Federation of Liberal Women, a member of the board of directors of the Belgian National Society of War Orphans, president of the Maison Maternelle, at Uccle, member of the executive committee of the Belgian Girl Guides, and, in many other directions, a well-known and highly regarded social worker.