WORLD CONFERENCE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 15 November 1924, Page 15

WORLD CONFERENCE.

. * WOMEN AT CHRISTIANIA. HR NANSEN'S INSPIRATION. (By “A Member” in London Observer. 1 ) Five years ago, at the Loudon School of Medicine for Women, representatives from Britain, Canada, and the United States did a considerable thing. They established the International Federation of University Women, with Professor Caroline Surgeon as their tv si president. What was the purpose ? It was to.found a moral league of educated women throughout the world as part of the international struggle against the return of war. The third conference of the federation has just been held at Christiania, not of Englishspeaking races alone, but of nearly all nations. It was an extraordinary experience. Such a gathering sounds a formidable, almost a staggering, affair of spectacled females and bright “knowifs,” as someone said. It suggests a solemn conclave where the small fry among intellectual Women at last meet the bigger fish —“the tyrant pike” —- in open discussion. It suggests every eccentric type of scholastic womanhood which used to move people to tears or satire. It brings visions of highbrows and blue stockings! Yet, in this third conference of the International Federation of University Women there was nothing dull or droll or sentimental. There was rather a sober enthusiasm, a sense of energy and constructive strength. Ai no time was the presence of these qualities so marked as in the last reunion of the conference, which was held for pleasure and comradeship, not for work. A little sad to leave our kind Scandinavian hosts, we went up to dine at FrognerSaeteren, which towers high up on a‘mountain above Christiania. The log-built, dragon-winged restaurant looks down through black pine trees and shadowy birch to the blue circle of the harbour, where the smoke drifting from the busy town is pierced by masts and funnels, and the long arm of the fjord is lightly patterned with little islands and with the white or red sails of yacht or fishing boat. In the gay-tapestried and raftered hall of the ‘place we had our mea), and the red Norwegian strawberries were eaten by Frenchwomen, Austrians, Canadians, elegant Americans, and a vivacious Italian —by every conceivable type of human being from countries as far distant as China and Ireland, as New Zealand and Finland. There were women of a hundred different occupations, and with a hundred different backgrounds, though all were university-bred. Here were experts in textiles, enehanted with the weaving and bold colour of Norwegian fabrics, lovers of literature enthralled by the grandeur of this land of Odin and the Vikings. Scientists and doctors were eager to see the famous hospitals of Christiania ; specialists in secondary education were discussing school and university systems with Norwegian .and Belgian teachers. Here were philosophers, observers of human, nature, women whose pames are *of repute in the commercial and financial worlds, politicians, mathematicians, a divine, journalists, university professors of all subjects, and an excited band of young students . from Christiania University. .The most formal, the most conventional among us, forgot to be formal and conventional that evening—and I, at . least, have come away the richer by a dozen new friends in as l many different towns of the world. The strain of the actual conference was over, and when half the guests had gone down hill, in the early train, Dr. Christine Bonnevie suddenly sprang on to a table, and spoke in Norwegian to a room which she said seemed only full of Norwegian faces. We, who stood by. from English-speaking countries, were proud to acknowledge a common Wood with so warm-hearted and sincere a people. She thanked Sweden, DenIWflrk, Finland, and her own students for their magnificent co-operation and help during th© week. After her, the delegates from the other Northern States spoke from her extempore platform—and, if anything could move oue to a hope for brotherhood between nations, it was the sight of these four countries, which have fought of old, now working in harmony and joiningin each other’s anthems till the roof fairly echoed and rang. In a mood as quiet as we had been joyous, we made our way in little groups to the train. The moon-silvered mists twisted wraith-like among the pine trees, a blind beggar fiddled softly to himself, as he sat on a boulder by a trickling mountain stream, and the plaintive string melody was as faint and sweet as a fairy hoi'n. So much for my vivid" memory of the conference. It was not the greatest moment, nor the most important, but it remains most vivid because here matured a sense of fellowship and trust which had been ripening all the week; because here all individual interests wore merged and submerged in gratitude and fixed resolve: because" - here the large-hearted hospitality of a Sample and kindly folk, who had stood aloof from the war, made for reconciliation and friendship among conflicting peoples—and because her© all aspirations found a common home in the mysterious grandeur and noetr v of Nor w»y. " - If the hospitality of the Northern federations created an atmosphere of eordial fi iendliness, it was a Norwegian also, who set the high, courageous tone of the conference. ~ In his grave and mfty speech at the opening session. Dr. Nansen spoke not as a man to women, but in hi s capacity as Commissioner to the League of Nations, and. above all, as a fellou -explorer in unknown seas. He stressed th© need for the development of an international mind, willing to work for all nations—the only remedy for the ghastly forces he saw at .work below the surface of modern society. He reviewed the unrest and depression of Europe since the war. and the cynicism of having one moral attitude for individuals and another for nations. Men must be given new ideals ,to work for, and it should be tne mission of. the universities to create these ideals, and to brino; no the new generation with one moral for individunl and State. Some 'good! he thought, must come out of this fermentation, since no age has been more alive with scientific discovery than our own. The universities must"have courage and faith to tak© the lead in a pew and better thought. Ideals make tor the progress of humanity. “They ought to be too high to be attained bv men, ’ he said, “but they must be there to act as a sour. Men'will never .I’d the Land or Heart’s Desire ’ but :deals urge onward. They break down limits of space and time, and that is the environment ive need for the children of the future.” lo those who cam© from universities only tolerated, this speec.i of Dr Nansen’s wn s doubly heartening and inspiring. That a man of such daring and vision should make no distinction of man or woman in