VICTORIA LEAGUE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3195, 9 June 1915, Page 4

VICTORIA LEAGUE.

The annual meeting of the Otago branch of the Victoria- League was held on the 24th ult. in the Town Hall. There was a large attendance of lady members, and in addition there wore several gentlemen present. His Worship the Mayor (Mr J. J. Clark) presided. The Mayor moved the adoption of the report, and Mr S. M. Park seconded the motion, which was spoken to by Dr P. Marshall and Professor White, all referring to the usefulness of the league.

The executive elected was as follows: President, Mrs Sim; vice-presidents—Mrs D. E. Theomin, Mrs E. C. Reynolds, and Miss Thcomin, Mrs E. C. Reynolds, and Miss Burt; secretary, Miss Lomas; treasurer, Mrs Fergus; executive committee—Mesdames Sargood, J. M. Ritchie, Cohen, Longford, J. W. Smith, G. R. Ritchie, Vivian, P. Marshall, Misses Reynolds, Anderson, Chalmer, Stuart, Bcgg, Ross, and Macassey; ■council—Mesdamcs Bowler, Ewen, C. C. Graham, Messrs G. M. Thomson, W. Barnett, P. R. Sargood, W. T. Monkman, J. B. Callan. D. Reid, and C. G. White. Mr P. R. Sargood said there were hundreds and thousands of young women who were breaking their hearts because they were not men to go and fight. They were crying out for organisation. If the league opened a bureau and asked for the names of young women who were willing to help in this crisis he believed that many would be found ready to take on as far as they could the work of a certain number of men, thus freeing those men, and ask for no remuneration, their service to be paid for according to its value, and the money to go to the dependents of the men who were replaced. The league might also try to influence public sentiment, perhaps by getting up some form of demonstration at which the organising would be by young women, thus wakening our young men to ft deeper sense of their duties and responsibilities. The same sentiment might ho invoked to induce mothers to part with their sons, and sweethearts with their lovers. Many had already done so, but some, he believed, were breaking the hearts of their menfolk by bringing influences to bear in the direction of preventing them from doing their duty. That was the sort of influence that could bo worked against by a league such as the. Victoria. He threw out the suggestion to the incoming committee. The women who had given their flesh and blood were to-day the greatest of the nation, and it was to Ihe women that we must continue to look to help very materially to bring our young men to 'a full recognition of the position. —(Applause.).