PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS TO W.C.T.U. ANNUAL CONVENTION.

White Ribbon, Volume 38, Issue 452, 18 April 1933, Page 6

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS TO W.C.T.U. ANNUAL CONVENTION.

MARCH, 1933. I >ear Sisters, — I cannot be with you personally for this Convention, hut in spirit I shall follow you each day as you take counsel together, or meet for prayer and praise. My prayers and thoughts will follow yours. May you all be inspired to consecrate your lives once again to the Master’s call, and may each one renew her strength through Him to go forth yet again and do His work for humanity. May all pessimism, all doubts and fears l*e driven from our hearts by the power of ♦he Spirit of Love, accepteed by each in full measure the Love that "casteth out fear.” May w-e have a glorious realisation that this is the only pow*er that can overcome the forces of selfishness and materialism that now threaten to engulf all that is best in the life of man.

Let none of us falter in the noble reforms w f e have pledged ourselves to work for. May we never be faint of heart, or faithless to the truths which we have accepted. May our challenge to the world ring true through the years, no matter what the temptation to waver may be. Even though world conditions look to be in a state of utter chaos, and the forces of evil marching ahead, the liquor interests apparently triumphant In America and Finland, Disarmament making but slow- progress, while the clouds of v/ar are rising ominously in the East, and Democracy seems staggering to its death —while so much is happening to try our faith, let us never forget that we have set out on a mission for great and nohie reforms, founded on everlasting truth. Let us never forget that, whatever may happen in this land, or in any other, we stand firm on the rock of truth, which no storms or world revolutions can alter or destroy. It stands defiant to all change, and will still be there when ail the world stresses and strains have done their worst and have passed on We then, who have kept the faith, shall behold it shining in the white light of the "Great Forever” and the Father’s everlasting love. Finland will return to stand by Prohibition, and take other nations with her. Years will probably pass before the “Blaine Amendment" can be ratified or defeated in America, and until then she is not authorised to go back on National Prohibition. In the meantime our gallant sisters in that land will organise as never beforeall the forces for righteousness will array themselves alongside, and under the standard of the Lord the forces of Liquordom and all evil will meet such a challenge as they have never met before. Let our prayers for them ascend before the throne of grace, as they marshal their forces once again, that their “eyes may see the glory of the coming of the Ixird, Who has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat while His truth Is maching on." Their task is immense, hut their faith is

greater still, and with this assurance we must leave them, but still pray for th^m. As we stand looking at a world wdiich man’s ordering has brought almost to the last stages of disorder, depression, and revolution —a world where greed of gold, the lust of power, Rnd faith In armaments have dethroned the teaching of Christ —a world where the nations are plunged into a state of bankruptcy, and their people into a state of workless semi-starvation, can we women say that we have done any one effective thing to prevent this headlong race to ruin—w r e who for forty years have had at the ballot box and in the house more power than men have if we had but used it?

Surely it is time that the women did something more worth while than rock cradles with hands that do not "rule the world." Surely it is time that women exercised a belief in themselves and their own higher instincts, and tried to he loyal to one another After forty years of full citizen rights, we should surely l»e able to put aside petty personal considerations, and meaningless party loyalties, so that women of ability may be elected to positions where they can make a real contribution to the life of the nation. Why is no woman’s voice heard in the highest councils of this land, where she has so much to give for the moral and physical betterment of the race? And, moreover, I say it without apology, so much could she give to help men on the economic, industrial and international affairs of the State and of the world For, w hether we like it or not. we must make our viewpoint felt, if ever sanity is to come where chaos now reigns. Forty years ago, in September, we of New Zealand opened the door of hope to women the world ovei through the extending of the franchise. Now it almost looks as if we had shut the door in our own faces, so little have we done to redirect a man-made world in its headlong rush towards collapse. For the furtherance of the spirit for disarmament and international understanding, what effectual influence have \.e wi'lded? In the interests of economic an financial stability, commonsense or constructive policy—have we offered one word of help through effective channels? To those who prosper by the moral and physical degeneration of the race, are we a force of which they live in fear? Or do they pass us by ar those who have lost the faith and courage of their early founders —a faith and courage that knew* no fear, that acknowledged no defeat, that carried its standard into the enemies’ lines, and planted it upon their territory. us think longer on this phase of our Influence. Forty years have we possessed that power for which Frances Willard poured out her life and her great heart, and for which she said: “By the incense of a thousand prayers wafted by their gentle lips to heaven, I charge you, give them the power to protect along life s treacherous highway, these whom they have so loved. . . .** We have that pow’er In our homes and in our votes. Tell me, sisters, tell me,

have we been true to our homes, to our God, and to Humanity, in the use we have made of that power? Nearly two geuerations have gone. Are we saving the youth of those generations to «m\ perceptible degree from inoral and racial destruction? Let us look to it with patience and care. If we are loyal to our womanhood, and use the power we have to give opportunity to those who, amongst us, are willing to face the heat and burden of public life, we could re-make this little country of ours. VVe could, by sheer force of numbers, insist that the nation should hear and heed us, and la> afresh the foundations of a race of men and women "diviner, but still human"- - "Solving the riddle old, bringing the age of gold,”

when no evil traffic shall destroy the bodies and the souls of men and women and unborn children.

We, sisters, have the power and the means to do this. May such a sense of that power break upon us and flood our vision from this day onward that we shall be found amongst those who have overcome and whose names arc written in the Lord’s Hook of Life for evermore.