THE OVERSEAS CLUB.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXIV, Issue 11577, 28 January 1913, Page 6

THE OVERSEAS CLUB.

ITS AIMS AND OBJECTS

ADDRESSES B.V AIR AND MISS

WRENCH.

There was a fairly large attendance at the Exchange Hall last evening, when the organising secretary of tho Overseas Club (Air Evelyn Wrench), and Miss Wrench gave addresses on the aims and objects of the Club. The Mayor (Air J. Al. Coradine) occupied the* chair. The chairman hoped that Mr Wrench would succeed in removing all the misconceptions in connection with the movement iv the interests of which he was making a tour of the Empire. He said the objects of the movement were purely patriotic, educational, and social, and had nothing whatever to do with party. Mr Wrench's Address. Air Wrench said a lot of things had been said about the Overseas Club aud Aliss Wrench and himself, but he took occasion to say that their position was an entirely honorary one, and they got nothing whatever out of it. At the conference recently held in Wellington, a Dominion Council had been elected, as it was considered desirable that various branches of the Club should be entirely autonomous. He said he considered the Club the most democratic and patriotic in the Empire. The Objects. The lour chief objects of the Club were: — (1) To help one another. (2) To render individual service to our Umpire, if need be to bear arms. (3) To insist on the vital necessity to the Umpire of British supremacy on the sea. (4) To draw together in the bond of comradeship the peoples now living under the folds of the British Flag. The Overseas Club, said Air Wrench, was strictly non-party,, non-sectarian, and recognised no distinction of class. It was not an organisation for those born in the United Kingdom, as was sometimes erroneously stated. The underlying idea was that of service. The Club was not a body of jingoistic individuals who believed iv (lag-wagging. It was not Anti-German or anti-any-thing else. The Club was absolutely democratic, and he believed this accounted for its success. There were now 104,000 members scattered over the Umpire, and five hundred different branches. Dunedin was the strongest branch of the Club in New Zealand at present. They had ISSO members there. The idea of the club was to make every member feel absolutely at home in any part of the Empire. Beforo expanding on the objects of the club, he would like to say that the club would not have been in existence had it not been for Lord Xorthcliffe, proprietor of the "Times" and ''Daily Alail." This gentleman was a. thorough Imperialist, and he published the first appeal on behalf of the Club in the Overseas edition of the Daily Alail on August 27th, 1910. Owing to that appeal they had obtained 3*200 members, and they had gone ahead ever since. Uvery branch of the club is expected to do something for others. One maintained a cot in a local children's hospital, and so on. One of the great objects of the club in Western Canada was to get at the children of the foreign residents and convert them into loyal British subjects. Not Jingoistic. As he said, the (Hub was not jingoistic, but one of its objects was to educate the people up to the huge responsibility entailed by being British subjects.

The work they were primarily trying to do in South Africa was a difficult one. It was to try and bring the different elements of Briton ami Boer together. The war was still well remembered, and the task was a difficult one. but at present they had two thousand Boer members. In Xew Zealand they hail not these difficulties to face. but he believed there was a lot of work to be done here. One thing the Club was trying to do in New Zealand was to ventilate the whole question of Imperial naval defence. Those who had read the Premier of Canada's '(Mr Borden) speech recently would have noted the very significant figures brought forward by him. In 1002 the British navy was represented in non-European waters by 1(34 vessels, whereas at the present time it was only represented by 64 vessels, and during that time the fleets of other nations in those parts were increasing. No one could accuse Mr Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, of a jingoistic or antiGerman spirit, but he stated that Britain should keep up a strong navy as a matter of insurance, and not in any offensive spirit. "Whether New Zealand followed the example of Australia and kept a fleet of her own, or whether she assisted by a subsidy to the British navy, the main thing was that all these fleets —these units —should act in unison. Some people considered that we over-rated the dangers surrounding our Empire, but, seriously, during the next fifty years the British Empire would be beset by many difficulties. The Women's Point of View. Miss Wrench said she liked to make a few remarks from the women 's point of view, because at these meetings she believed the mon, and they would excuse her for saying so, had rather too much their own way. She considered, however, that the women were as much concerned in patriotism as the men, if not more so. If one wanted to find patriotism she would like to say they must look to the British Empire, but this was not so; they had to look to .Japan. They were extraordinarily patriotic in that country. As an illustration of this she told the following story. In Japan, if a mother has an only son, it is that son's duty to place his mother before everything else, and to support her. At tho time of the war with Russia, one of these mothers wanted her son to fight for his country, but she saw that she stood in the way, and what did she do? She committed suicide. The speaker did not hold with her action, of course, but it illustrated the remarkable patriotism of the people. "At the back of every man was the ! woman," continued Miss "Wrench, I "and at the back of every child was the mother." One thing the Club stood for was service instead of boasting and bragging that we belonged to the greatest nation in the world. The Overseas Club, said Miss Wrench, originated from a passage in Cecil Rhodes' diary, written by him on the i South African veldt when quite a j young man. He, recognising that one j of tho great obstacles in the way of the unity of the Empire was ignorance, suggested a huge secret society to disseminate knowledge. When her brother read this he said, "Why a secret society." that that was really the origin of the Overseas Club. Provisional Executive. A branch of the Overseas Club was formed in Masterton some months ago, j and the following provincial officers j were elected last evening, on the motion of Mr A. H. Vile:—President, the | Mayor (Mr J. M. Coradine); Vice- j Presidents, Messrs 6. R. Sykes, M.P., i and A. W. Hogg; Committee, Mesdai*- i

es Coradine, Anderson, Braddell, Rev. H. Watson, Dr'Cook,: and' Alessrs Geprgeson and Ilessey. Musical Items. During the evening songs were contributed by Mesdames Edwards ?»nd Anderson, and Air . : W... t lggulden.