Overseas Letters

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22513, 22 September 1938, Page 5 (Supplement)

Overseas Letters

Extract from a letter from a girl in Burma, sent by Jeanette Hartley, Rangiora.

"The Burmese people here arc very interesting and very sociable. I have many Burmese girls as friends; They are very shy. and the women are far more advanced than the men. In bazaars (markets) and roads you’ll only find women selling. They look very dainty in their gaily coloured costumes. “Mouluicin is the port at the mouth of the Salween river, and on the east is a ridge of hills from the top of which the view to be had is very beautiful. It is the third largest town in Burma, and is rather quiet. There are four cinema halls, and Burmese, Indian, arid English pictures are shown. “There arc about 10 high schools (including eighth, ninth, and tentn standards) and a few middle schools. Burmese is our second language, which is compulsory for all. Before the second language in English schools was French. “Here is your name spelt In Burmese and Bengali.”

These are extracts from letters from a girl living in Pennsylvania. "May 30 was a legal holiday in the United States. It is called memorial day, and it is on this day that we honour all those soldiers who have died in our wars. It is also the day oh Which the parks officially begin their summer season. “We went to rolling green park for the day. It is an amusement park where we have swimming, boating, the merry-go-round, etc. “July 4 is another legal holiday. Most of our holidays come on Mondays this year, so we celebrate two days, Sunday and Monday. Fireworks, picnics, _ and sight-seeing trips are most important on the Fourth. This- day is the one on which we celebrate our mdepcna-

ence from England when TT.S. had only 13 colonies. “We were supposed to go to Hersley park to-day. Hersley park is about 120 miles from here. It is a beautiful place. Have you ever heard of the Hersley candies? This man Hersley has made millions of dollars from candy bars, chocolate, ice-cream. All ihe->e ,are manufactured in Hersley, the town he started. They have their schools, churches, factories, and also an industrial school for boys, which he built a few years ago. He also owns Hersley park. They have a swimming pool, all the amusements other parks have, a dance floor, a community theatre, pools where they have fish, ducks, swans, and the most beautiful flowers and sunken gardens. This last year they completed the building of the Hersley sports arena. “Now I’ve told where we- were going to-day, but didn’t, so I guess I had better tell you where we did go yesterday. “This year marked the seventyfifth anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, which took place in July, first, second, third, in 1863. There are now only 39 survivors of that battle known to be alive. All the veterans of the Civil War came to Gettysburg at the expense of the Government for their last trip to the battlefield. There were 2000 Union men and 1000 Confederate men. You can use your imagination as to how old and feeble some of them were to make the trip from ah Parts of the country. Wc went to Gettysburg yesterday. X have not ever seen so many cars- and people, m one road we passed a line of cars three miles long. One man said he had gone three miles in live hours. You can imagine how many cars there were. , “Yesterday the President dedicated a monument called the eternal light, which is surmounted by a bronze urn containing a perpetually burning light.. Natural gas from Western Pennsylvania will furnish the fuel. It was the first time I had ever had an opportunity to see our President in person. I was quite lucky, for when his car came down the hill from the monument, preceded by police on horses, I was only about eight feet from the car and got an unobstructed view of ’ the President and Governor Earle, of Pennsylvania. It was an exciting day, indeed, and one I won’t forget for many years.”