PACIFIC AFFAIRS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23339, 6 May 1939, Page 23

PACIFIC AFFAIRS

WOMEN'S ASSOCIATION WELLINGTON CONFERENCE DISTINGUISHED VISITORS A tentative acceptance of the invitation sent her by the New Zealand executive of the Pan-Pacific Women's Association to attend the conference in Wellington in 1940 has been received from Dame Enid Lyons, widow of the late Prime Minister of the Federal Government of Australia. Damn Enid stated in her letter that she would make every effort to be present. It is possible that Canada may send a delegation of about 20 women. Among them are: —Senator Carine Wilson (tho first woman member of the Federal Parliament); Dr. Douglass, M.D. (president of the Canadian and professional Women's Club), Miss Newman (recent president of the University Women's Club); Mrs. Walker, from Calgary; and Mrs. Campbell (chairman of the Canadian committee, Univerßitv Graduates' Association). Invitations have been sent to interested women in Siam, Cambodia, Java. Burma, Ceylon, Japan, Dutch East Indies, New Hebrides and Papua. Dean Bollert, the president of the Pan-Pacific Women's Association, has also written to Dame Rachel Crowdy, to see if it would be possible for her to attend. Dame Rachel, whose name is a household word on the other side

of the world, attended the Honolulu conference in 1930 on behalf of the League of Nations. Sho is a world authority on the League of Nations, social questions, the drug traffic, the traffic in women and children, refugee children, the private manufacture of armaments and of conditions in Spain. Indian Delegate

Of the Indian delegation who will probably attend, the Begum Hamed Ali of Baroda has definitely accepted. The Begum is a very fine Moslem woman, and has represented India on a number of commissions abroad t She dresses in Indian style, and has great influence, especially within the All-India Women's Conference.

Raj-kumari Amrit Kaur is a personal friend of Mahatma Gandhi, and is always ready to give him needed assistance. Sho is not strong, and wears herself out with good works. Her father was a Maharajah who became a Christian, and because of that abdicated from his Hindu throne. Raj-kumari (the term means princess) is a very good speaker and is simple in her tastes.

Rani Rajwade is president of the AllIndia Conference Committee. Of these three Indian women it has been said that they are "the finest trio in all India." Indian Women's Part The women of India always make a notable contribution at any conference they attend. Their beauty of form and feature, the dignity of their carriage, their high degree of intellectuality and their grasp of India's problems mako them outstanding personalities. At the 1934 conference in Honolulu, for instance, there were few who did not carry away a vivid impression of Mrs. Checlia Vedanayagam Davasahayam, or "Mrs. Davies," as sho invited the delegates, with her flashing smile, - to call her "for short." She is a graduate of Madras University, and travelled from Singapore to attend the conference.

Mrs. Davies was active in the Singapore Y.W.C.A., in tho Methodist Church, and she was president of tho Lotus Club, an organisation of Indian, Singhalese and Persian women. Her mastery of English would have been remarkable in an English woman. As an after-dinner speaker she was in great request, and Avhen opportunity offered was not averse, with some humorous thrust, to showing up sOinc of the defects of our boasted civilisation.

''With us," sho said on one occasion, "fastness is not necessarily progress." On another occasion, speaking of the problems of Indian women, sho said: "Our trouble is to get our women out of their homes to educate them. From what 1 can see, yours seems to bo to keep them there." Mrs. Davies' saris of richly coloured and embroidered silks were the admiration of the conference. Sho never wore the samo one twice, and naively explained that her sister and sister-in-law had done her packing for her. and had put in many of their saris. "As we are not able to pjo round the world with, yon," they said, "at least we can send our saris."