WOMEN’S WAYS

Southland Times, Issue 23408, 15 January 1938, Page 16

WOMEN’S WAYS

At Home And Abroad FIRST BALKAN WOMAN JOURNALIST Madame Marija Juritch, first Balkan woman journalist, who has been writing for more than 40 years, is at present busy on three historical novels. Under the name of “Zagorka,” her works are well known in Yugoslavia, Austria, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Her chief aim is to present the history of her country in a simple way which can be understood by working men and women. She has written in all 22 novels, 18 dramas, 50 sketches, 250 novelettes, and 11 million lines of newspaper articles. LIFE IN JAPAN “Although Japan is fighting _ with China, I found that life in Japan is not very different from other times I have been there, except that there are fewer tourists and travellers.” This is the opinion of Miss Bertha .Clarke, who has just returned to Australia from a trip to the East. Miss Clarke, who frequently travels to Japan to conduct parties of tourists, said that on this trip no travellers would accompany her because of the position in the East. “It is not generally known that about 20,000 Chinese residents in Japan are being allowed to carry on their business without any interference from Japan. Several of them told me that they felt safer in Japan than in China,” Miss Clarke said. “Many did go to China at the beginning of the hostilities, but numbers had returned to Japan before I left.” NEW HANDBAGS • LONDON, December 9. One which opens like a book, with a pocket for everything, money, lipstick, rouge, powder and keys. These must be put back tidily or the bag will not shut. Another is completely disguised by a little curtain of suede, which is drawn across it on curtain-rods. This turns a workmanlike purse into something which can be carried with an elaborate afternoon gown. A bag shaped like a little umbrella, with a round circular lid fitted with a mirror, has pockets round the top for purse and beauty aids. DUCHESS LEADS FASHION The Duchess of Kent may be a leader of fashion, but she has, in fact, fap fewer clothes than most film stars. What she buys, she chooses carefully and wears over and over again. She buys, one notices, a lot of black and a lot of velvet. She is the only member of the Royal Family who favours black when not in mourning, and her latest dress purchase combines her two loves. The dress is ultra-simple and well within the scope of millions of women with slender purses. It has no trimming, no drapery, no frills; just a very full velvet skirt gathered on to a tight-fitting bodice. Two items of the Duchess’s wardrobe are familiar to all those who come into frequent contact with her—her furs and her jewels. Her new clothes are always chosen with these in mind. This dress, for instance, will make _ a perfect ensemble with the short white ermine and fox wrap which she often wears in the evening. It will form an ideal background for the complete sets of diamond and pearl jewellery she always wears. Long pendant earrings, diamond clips and bracelets make one of the sets for evening. Another, for less formal occasions, consists of large round pearl-drop earrings, double or triple pearl necklace, and a small pearl ornament. WORK AMONG WOMEN “My children always tell me that if I had not gone in for politics, I should have entered the Salvation Army,” declared vivacious Lady Astor, when speaking at the 53rd anniversary meeting in connection with women’s social work in the Salvation Army. At this meeting, writes The Dominion’s London correspondent, I met for the first time Mrs Neville Chamberlain, wife of the Prime Minister. She presided at the meeting, and looked very charming and youthful in. black coat and hat with touches of red. Her speaking voice is very pleasant, and she spoke for quite a long time on the great work which the Salvation Army is doing for poor women all over the world. Commissioner Catherine BramwellBooth, who presented the annual report, is a loss to the stage. Her flexible and compelling voice and vivid gestures swept her audience along with her in a tale of cheerful service and help for both souls and bodies. Work among women done by the Salvation Army consists of maternity work, hostels for homeless women, prison and police-court work, and care of children and the aged. Some astonishing figures are quoted in the report.

During last year in Great Britain and Ireland 34,631 women attended the ante-natal clinic in connection with th. Mother’s Hospital at Clapton, and 311,722 homeless women were given beds. Officers made 2835 visits to women prison--rs and wrote 16,492 letters to women who had passed through their various homes.

Particularly wonderful work is being done at the present time, Commissioner Bramwell-Booth told men, in providing food and shelter for Chinese mothers and children who have been rendered homeless by the hostilities in the Far East.