FASCINATING POST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27450, 25 July 1950, Page 2

FASCINATING POST

Mr Gordon-Walker’s Private Secretary GRADUATE IN HISTORY Miss E. J. Emery, who is principal private secretary to the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, Mr P. C. Gordon-Walker, who is at present in Dunedin, has a post which many young women would covet. A graduate in history from Glasgow University, in which city, incidentally, she was born, she has yet spent a large part of her life in Canada. She went to school there, and she was for two years at the High Commissioner's Office in Ottawa. Now she speaks with a charming trans-Atlantic accent. The present visit to New Zealand and Australia is her first travelling post, and she is thoroughly enjoying it, although it means a great deal of hard work. Miss Emery emphasised that as a member of the Commonwealth Relations Office in London, her present post is not necessarily a permanent one. Different duties are done more or less in rotation, and it was In this way that she served for a

time during the war as assistant secretary to the Prime Minister, Mr Attlee. She went from the university directly into the Dominions’ Office as it was then called. Normally entrance to the higher branches of the public service in England is through a stiff entrance examination. During the war. temporary officers were employed, but before Miss Emery could become a permanent officer she haa to pass this examination. , . , However the examinations which she has had to' pass to qualify for her present position do not seem to have taken any of the charm from the attractive, smiling young woman who is now spending the greater part of each day in seeing New Zealand and helping to compile reports and record impressions. . . . „ In London, she spends most of her spare time in housekeeping in her flat at Kensington. London, she thinks, is looking much brighter and gayer this year. Before Miss Emery came to New Zealand she had heard a great deal about the country from the New Zealand High Commissioner, Mr W. Jordan, and the members of his staff, but after the scenic variety of the South Island seen on the journey from Mount Cook to Dunedin yesterday, she thinks they under-esti-mated the beautiy of the country. Packing for the trip was rather a problem, she confessed. A few days were spent flying across Canada, then through tropical heat and on to New Zealand and Australia in winter, with a strenuous programme of travelling awaiting her. The comforts and convenience of nylon clothes as worn in Canada and America would have been very useful, she said, but there were no dollars.