GIRL GUIDE MOVEMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20605, 2 July 1930, Page 5

GIRL GUIDE MOVEMENT.

NEW HEADQUARTERS. FOUNDATION-STONE LAID. [from our own correspondent.] LONDON, May 30. A very happy and important function in connection with the Girl Guide movement was the foundation-stone-laying ceremony of the new Imperial headquarters in Palace Street, Westminster, on May 23. Princess Mary, Countess of Harewood, dressed in her uniform as president of the association, performed the ceremony in the presence of Lord Baden-Powell, Lady Baden-Powell, Miss Baden-Powell, Lady Clinton, Viscountess Chaplin, Viscountess Cave, Mrs. Houison Craufurd, Mrs. Crich-ton-Miller, Lilian Digby, Dame Katherine Furse, Mcs. Gordon Fislier, Brigadier-General E. C. Godfrey-Faussett, Lord Hampton, Mrs. W. R. Wilson (Auckland), Countess Jellicoe, the Countess of Kenmare, Mrs. Macartney, Lady Luke, the Duchess of Norfolk, Lady Delia Peel, Lady Perrott, the Dowager Lady Suflield, Mrs. Philip Snowden, Dame Meriel Talbot, the Dowager Lady Swaythling, the Hon. Mrs. Stuart Wortley. Rangers and Guides of the headquarters staff formed a picturesque guard of honour for Princess Mary, who was received by Lord Baden-Powell, Lady Baden-Powell (Chief Guide), and leading figures in the movement.

Lord Baden-Powell, welcoming Her Royal Highness, .said that the news that the president herself had performed the stone-laying would be received with enthusiastic appreciation wherever, throughout the world, Guiding was known. He made a number of presentations to Her Royal Highness, among them, Miss Montgomery, the general secretary, whom Princess Mary invested with the decoration of the Silver Fish, in recognition of her services to the movement.

The ceremony then began. A casket had been made to contain the following articles: A copy of the programme for the day; a copy ot the Times of the day; specimens of current coin 3of the day; the current • association report; and a trefoil badge brooch. This was placed in the specially-pre-> pared cavity by the Chief Guide, and Dame Helen Gwynne-Vayghan asked Princess Mary to receive a trowel from the architect, with which she spread the mortar. The stone was lowered carefully and the casket walled into the building, and Her Royal Highness, after tapping it into position with a gavel, declared the stone "to be well and truly laid." . When completed the new building will be six storeys high, and will accommodate the administrative departments, in addition to providing space for the display of guide and camp equipment. The growth of the movement throughout the Empire made necessary an adequate headquarters, at a cost of £74,500. This eum is beijig raised in the association by means of small subscriptions. Since 1925, when the last extension of premises took place, the growth of the movement is shown by the increase in numbers through the Empire from 441,270 in that year to 575,530 at the end of 1928. To keep pace with the work the staff has steadily grown from 51 in 1920 to 130 in 1929. An average day's post is 500 letters. In a very busy week as many as 2700 parcels have been pafiked; in the year 1928 88,573 parcels were despatched. When the new headquarters is built there will be more space in which to receive overseas visitors, and a room where meetings may be held. Princess Mary, years ago, expressed the wish that the committee might be better housed. In supporting this appeal she satisfied herself by a prolonged visit, in which nothing from the topmost garret to the darkest and dampest basement had been concealed, that it was essential for the good of the staff and for the movement as a whole that the headquarters of so important an organisation should be well housed.