A WOMAN AT GENEVA

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17454, 31 December 1930, Page 11

A WOMAN AT GENEVA

MAGNITUDE OF WORK ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT LEAGUE PERTH, Dec. 10 Miss May Holman, M.L.A., who returned in R.M.S. Orontes to-day after her official visit to Geneva, has become an ardent admirer of the League oi Nations. In an interview Min's Holman said that without visiting Geneva is was impossible to grasp the magnitude of the work that was being done there. She had visited a meeting of (lie 'council two days before the Assembly, and, seethe eminent statesmen gathered about the round table, she had realised that thero was something in “this roundtable business.” Surely nothing could be more for peace than for these representatives of many countries to gather and talk over their troubles together. Australia was doing right in sending a different delegate each year, for in that wtiy she was getting ' new propagandists. She intended to spread the news of the work of the League and the international Labor organisation. Miss Holman said the conference proceedings at Geneva were interesting, particularly Mr. Henderson’s dramatic speech on the subject of the mandated territories, during which the whole conference was keyed up to the highest pitch of excitement. Another dramatic episode was the promulation of M. Briand’s proposal for a federation of Europe. For the first time at Geneva a woman had been chosen to preside over a committee. She was the Countess Apponya, a Hungarian, and her control of the proceedings of the committee on social questions demonstrated her fitness for such a position. Speaking of women prominent in public life in Great Britain, Miss Holman §aid she did not meet Miss Margaret Bondfield, M.P., but she had been greatly impressed by the personality and capacity of Mrs. May Hamilton, Miss Ellen Wilkinson and Dr. Marion Phillips, who is a native of Melbourne, and is now a member of the House Of Commons.