LONDON BUSINESS GIRLS.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 July 1929, Page 19

LONDON BUSINESS GIRLS.

GREAT Y.W.C.A. SCHEME.

London, June 14.

During the past three years a great deal of hard work has been done to forward a scheme for tho benefit of the business girls of London. There are 800,000 such girls and women earning their living daily in London, and some 300,000 of these are employed in central London. So far the girls have had nothing corresponding to that which their brothers enjoy in the well-known Y.M.C.A. headquarters in Tottenham Court road. To make good this deficiency the Young Women's Christian Association has been working for three years past, and £175,000 has been collected, the girls themselves raising £12,000 of this.. The Y.W.C.A. has now decided to begin building, and a central site in Great' Russell Street, Bloomsbury, has been bought. Her Majesty the Queen will lay the foundation-stone on June 25. But to complete the building and equip jt properly and start tho club on a sound basis more money is wanted, and an appeal has now been launched to raise another £75,000. Among the signatories to this appeal appearing in the Daily Telegraph

are the Marchioness of Londonderry, Mrs. Stanley Baldwin, Mrs. Philip Snowden, the Duchess of Athol], M.P., Dame Margaret Lloyd George, Viscountess Astor, M.P., and the Hon.

Margaret Bondfield, M.P. The Queen, the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of York (now president of the Blue Triangle Forward Movement), and Princess Mary have already given donations to the fund. Five donors have given

£lOOO each, and from the list it seems likely that it will be possible to hand a cheque for the full amount to the Queen when she lays the foundationstone on June 25.

Sir Edwin Lutyens has designed the building, which will be equipped with a lounge, wherein girls can meet their friends —both men and women; a chapel, for private and corporate worship; chib rooms, for groups of members and their organised activities; a health centre, comprising consulting rooms, a gymnasium, and a swimming pool; a cafeteria, where wholesome foo.d can be obtained at reasonable prices; a library and class rooms for private study and educational courses; rest rooms, open all day, especially for business girls off duty; a large hall for conferences and entertainments; an information and housing bureau for women travellers; bedrooms for temporary use, and a roof garden.