Women Say "Open Doors To German Children"

Chronicle (Levin), 21 April 1948, Page 6

Women Say "Open Doors To German Children"

Suggestions that the immigration of homeless German children should be 6ncouraged were put forward at the first of four "peace''* meetings to be held by the National Council of Women in the British Israel rooms, says the Auckland Star. It was also fel-t that penfriendships between children of different nations could play a strong part towards ultimate world understanding.

The first of the guest speakers was Mr. Segar , Potter, who spent six and a-half years in . Europe, including 17 months in Germany. The minor role taken by German women in public affairs until recently was described "by the speaker, who said that very few German women were seen even driving cars. The low rations were also mentioned. Juvenile tuberculosis in one of the more flourishing agricultural districts had increased four and a-half to five times, the speaker said. To contribute towards peace, the attitude of the Allies towards Germany should be tolerant without being "soft," Mr. Potter^ concluded. The second speaker" was the Rev. Harris Whitfield, who was for a time chaplain to the N.Z. Forces in Japan. He said that it took big men and women to live in the small world of today and pointed out that whereas the task of the Nineteenth Century was to make the world a neighbourhood, the task of the Twentieth Century was to make it a brotherhood. The hope of Japan lay in its women, he said. "They were highly intelligent and were-in the liabit of exercising care and thoughtfulneess in' their relationships with others. Boys were trained from earliest childhood to control thcir emotions and observe perfect cfiscipline. One of Japan's difficultles was the lack of a middle class which served as a stabilising influence in other eountries. The fact that under the new coristitutlcn, marriages arranged by the parties' parents would no longer be permitted was also mentioned by the speaker.