“ First Lady ” Has Another Busy Day

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 206, 31 August 1943, Page 4

“ First Lady ” Has Another Busy Day

ROUND OF VISITS TO CAMPS AND WAR WORKERS (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON. Aug. 30. Completing another full day in Wellington with a civic reception at the Majestic Theatre and a private dinner at which she was the guest of the United States Charge d’ Affaires in New Zealand (Mr. Raymond Cox), Mrs. Roosevelt to-night boarded her special train and left for Rotorua * where she will fulfil a round of engagements tomorrow. Mrs. Roosevelt devoted this morning to visits to the United States Marine Corps camps, travelling in the Governor General’s car which had been placed at her disposal. She was accompanied by the Minister of Defence (Hon. F. Jones), the commanding general of the Marine Corps in the area, Mrs. Fraser, Lieutenant-Commander H. D. Moulton and Captain H. G. Helroore, A.D.C. to the Governor-General. At each camp she visited Mrs. Roosevelt, who was wearing her American Red Cross uniform, paid particular attention to the hospitals and sick bays, speaking cheery words of encouragement and wishing all good luck in the future. Possibly because her son, LieutenantColonel J ames Roosevelt, contracted malaria in his term of service in the South Pacific she seemed specially sympathetic towards malaria sufferers. She took a keen interest in the arrangements made for the comfort of the sick men. The short time available and the number and size of the camps she had to visit made it impossible for her to sec much of their activities, but she drove round them to as great an extent as possible, waving to the men at their duties. At one of the camps she had an opportunity to see the Marines as they were when in action in the Solomon Islands. Full defence guards were mounted at vantage points, including antitank, antiaircraft and mobile half track units the crews of which were forest camouflaged tunics and tin hats. Following luncheon which was partaken in the officers’ mess of one of the biggest camps, Mrs. Roosevelt spent the afternoon visiting war factories in which she saw women at war work, the women war workers’ hostel and a prisoners of war parcel packing depot. At the first factory visited she inspected girls engaged in a specially protected area from which all but the principals of the official party were excluded. In other departments she talked with women working lathes and finishing precision parts for war purposes. The girls gave her an enthusiastic welcome. On this part of the tour she was conducted by the Director of War Production (Mr. G. H. Jackson). At the entrance to tho new physical testing station of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research Mrs. Roosevelt was met by the director of the department, Lieutenant-Colonel E. Marsden, and shown the activities carried on there, including the production of precision tools and gauges, the manufacture of which had been instituted in the Dominion to satisfy the demands of war production. A wee model cannon produced by one of the students in his spare time was presented to Mrs. Roosevelt as a momento of her visit to this establishment. The next call was at the new hostel for women war workers in the Hutt Valley where Mrs. Roosevelt was received by the chairman of the committee, Mrs. David Ewen, and the matron in charge of women’s hostels, Miss McMillan, the last-named explaining the aostel facilities to the visitor. Mrs. r.voose\ elt was the guest of the hostel committee at afternoon tea. At the prisoners of war parcel packing depot in Tory Street, Wellington, Mrs. Roosevelt was met by the chairman of tho Joint Council of the Order of St. John and the New Zealand Red Cross, Mr. C. G. White, and watched the packing of parcels provided through the Patriotic Fund Board for dispatch to prisoners in enemy countries. In other parts of the same building she saw the censoring of quarterly parcels sent by next-of-kin. So interested was Mrs. Roosevelt in her activities during the afternoon that she finished her round of visits well behind schedule time and left herself barely time to return to Government House before she was due to leave again for the civic reception.