WORK OF THE Y.M.C.A.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21446, 22 September 1931, Page 11

WORK OF THE Y.M.C.A.

ITS INTERNATIONAL SCOPE WORLD CONFERENCES IN AMERICA. (Peb United Press Association.) Wellington, September 21. After representing New Zealand at world Y.M.C.A. conferences in Toronto and Cleveland, Mr Keith Falconer returned to Wellington, from America by the Makura. Mr Falconer says that there were two conferences at Toronto—one for young men and the other for boy workers. The ,l>ig conference at Cleveland was concerned with all phases of Y.M.C.A. work, and was attended by 800 delegates, representing 47 nations. “You may judge how cosmopolitan this conference was,” said Mr Falconer, “ when I tell you that my room ■ mates were a young Turk and an Arab (from Jerusalem). If you had told me before I left New Zealand that I would be ‘rooming' with an Arab I would not have conceived it possible, yet we got along finely. ,In the same manner English, Canadian, and American boys were rooming with Japanese and Brazilians, Chinese and Hungarians. “To tell what was done at these conferences would be too long a story,” said Mr Falconer, “but generally the effect of such gatherings must be very far- ■ reaching. _ Since I have arrived home I have received a letter from my Arabian friend who is taking up boys’ work for the Y.M.C.A. in Jerusalem, and wishes to keep in touch with me. “ One very important thing was dealt with at Cleveland," continued Mr Falconer,' “It related to the moving picture industry. It was decided that the producing corporations should be, approached with an urgent request for a cleaner and a better class of picture* than are at present being shown, and that in return the Y.M.C.A. magazines and papers would make a point of publishing the names of pictures which passed the Y.M.C.A. selection committees. Another form of activity discussed was the necessity for giving all the assistance possible to students and .travellers by YJM.C.A. organisations throughout the world so that young men, no matter where they are, may have at their disposal points of assembly and bureaux of helpful information to aid them on their way. “ Great preparations are being made for the big international exhibition to be held_ in Chicago in 1933,” Mr Falconer continued. “They have already been at work for over a year on the erection of the buildings in Grant Park on the lake front.”