GIRL REPORTER

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20714, 26 January 1939, Page 7

GIRL REPORTER

“THE BEST IN FLEET STREET” A remarkable story of suocess in Fleet Street belongs to Miss Lorraine Streeter, a young Brisbane journalist, who left for London two years ago and who returned to Sydney recently in the Mariposa with the reputation of “the best girl reporter in Fleet Street.” Although Miss Streeter was completely unknown when she arrived in London, within a few weeks she obtained the position of junior girl reporter on the Daily Mirror. She rapidly shed the “junior” and was given many of the front page assignments. In addition to her articles in the Mirror, Miss Streeter wrote regular articles in the Sunday Pictorial and w r as frequently borrowed by that paper for special work. She travelled 6000 miles cn the Continent for the Mirror.

Among her most important assignments was being sent to Europe to And Madame Irene Schmeder. who crashed in an aeroplane last December after shooting her lover. Miss Streeter tracked Madame Schmeder to Paris. Marseilles, Vienna, and back to Paris, where, by a ruse, she persuaded the Frenchwoman to board a speciallychartered plane for England. About a score of English journalists also joined in the search. Miss Streeter “got her woman,” as well as her story, the journalist’s sister, Mrs Mervyn Gaul, of Sydney, told the Morning Herald. Miss Streeter is a graduate in Arts, from the Brisbane University, and was the university's first woman swimming

blue. She held the girls’ 100 metre breaststroke record of Australia when she was 14. Having served twelve months on the Brisbane Telegraph and two years in Fleet Street, Miss Streeter has completed her three years’ practical newspaper work which will enable her to gain her Diploma in Journalism at the Brisbane University. Returning with Miss Streeter was her‘fiance, Mr Harley Stumm, the 1934 Rhodes Scholar from the Queensland University. He continued his studies at Balliol College, Oxford, and was called to the English Bar as a member of Lincoln’s Inn. While at Oxford, Mr Stumm played Rugby for the second fifteen and gained his A class pilot's license, later becoming a pilot officer in the R.A.F. reserve. When he came down from Oxford he joined the staff of the Sunday Express as a reporter in order to gain experience. Miss Streeter and Mr Stumm plan to be married in Brisbane.