Woman's Share in Promoting Goodwill

Manawatu Times, Volume 59, Issue 182, 1 August 1934, Page 2

Woman's Share in Promoting Goodwill

CONSTRUCTIVE WORK FOR WORLD SECURITY

The international world as a woman surveys it was the subject of Miss C. R. Ashton's address to the Palmerston North Citizens' Lunch Club yesterday. The speaker pointed out that the real way to international' goodwill was not the traditional shouting of '• songs. of brotherhood, but an intelligent enlargement of points of harmony which existed between nations. The club welcomed as its visitors Mrs W. H. Galbraith and Messrs D. Collis (Kairanga) and L. Joyce (Eltham). Kev. D. J. Davies presided. The world in which wo lived to-day, declared the speaker, was governed not by logic, truth or justice, but by inherited prejudice. It was still far from an international commonwealth; all the advances of transport and communication had not done away .with national barriers. • Nationality was a state of the mind, extending beyond mere physical barriers. The vital elements which constituted nationality had to be considered in any thoughtful approach to international comradeship. Nationality was a natural division of the human family, and as yet the conception of all mankind dwelling under the same flag was a chimera. It was the impractical aspect of internationalism which prejudiced many against it. But true harmony would bo built not .on a world merger of people’s ideals, but the careful preservation of distinctive national characteristics. Only as each nation progressed along the road of truth would there dawn any approximation to intelligent internationalism.

What had woman done’ to promote international operation on such lines. In the modern ago there were probably far more working constructively outside the home than in it; and their contribution to internationalism was a potent one. They had suffered—as men had suffered—the misnomer of “cranks” because they dared to espouse a cause of peace. 'But in the last decado their work had been of increasing value. Great women connected with the League of Nations were almost invariably social workers, who had previously striven for justice in some lesser sphere; the experience had been a great boon to them. Almost at our doors women were attending the Pan-Pacific conference in-an endeavour to seek and And international goodwill in our part of the world. In other lands, too, various

women’s organisations were constantly prosecuting their aims of international' goodwill, and their joint efforts had culminated recently in a federative women’s committee on disarmament. Though tho Disarmament Conference as a whole had failed, yet the mere achievement had been a great one for womankind. Tho task that lay before intelligent internationalism was a colossal one. But it could bo performed, and education was tho means to that end. ’War could be effaced if all women refused to countenance . strife, and eventually women, in their pursuit of socinl justice, must bring about a new world order and enlightenment. Thanks to tho speaker were voiced by Mr W. 11, Galbraith.