HAPPILY HONOURED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 190, 13 August 1931, Page 2

HAPPILY HONOURED

DAME RACHEL CROWDY Sixteen years ago the name of Rachel (..'rowdy, says a London writer, first be came prominent when she wag niadt Dame Commander of the British Em pire in appreciation of her war-tim<. work. To-day this same name is being wide ly honoured here for the peace-tiim work she has since carried on in th( social service section of the League oJ Nations. Dame Rachel Crowdy began her pub lie career some live years before the outbreak of the World War whei Alexandra’s interest in the stories of heroic deeds done by nurse: in the Russo-Japanese War turned tht attention of the country to those ex ploits. Miss Crowdy saw the necessity for ar organised body of trained women vol unteers who could be called upon fo. nursing and other duties at a time ol national emergency. When the European war broke out she already had a battalion of 60,001 xt her command, known as the Voluntary Aid Detachment. {September, 1911 found her housed in Boulogne ir com mand of all the “ V.A.D. lf member; who took their part in serving with the British forces in Erance and Belgium, Lu September, 1919, she was demo boliscd. ihree eeks later, she yieldcc to the persuasions of Sir Eric Drum rnond and, taking her departure io Geneva, began her work for the League Her work involved the first attemp to pul into moving order that scctioi of the League Covenant which has sinc( been described as th v “charter for the poor, the diseased, the enslaved of the world. ’ ’ In the past Id years, Dame llachc has given herself to this work, organ ising the efforts made to discover am check the trading routes of the whiti slave traffic and the secrets of th' traffic in opium and other dangerou drugs.