A WOMAN'S EMPIRE DINNER.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1024, 13 January 1911, Page 11

A WOMAN'S EMPIRE DINNER.

(By .."Domimca.") .. There ara; many women's clubs in -London, but of them nil tho Lyceum. Club still takes, first place, with its wide and interesting basis of membership, and its long list of 2500 members. So representative is.the. club'.'that as one member said recently you can hardly think of a nib--jedt on'which you could want information.' without finding, s.ome member of the club Who has the subject at her finger tip. , '.There, are.' many circles within the club, and bn ; the committee of one, the United Colonial Circle, aro two New Zenland women, Lady. Stout'and Mrs.-Gross-mart,. Lady. Stout acted as one 'of tho hostesses at a'dinner given by. this circlo recently,, when many distinguished and interesting;- people were present, and among a few who may be mentioned were Sir George and Lady Reid, Mr. Henniker Heatoh.'Sir Pieter and Lady Van StewartBam (from' South Africa), Sir William and Lady'Hall-Jones, Miss Mary Gaunt (tho Australian novelist), and Miss Agnes Deans Cameron, a brilliant lecturer from Canadai '

The ' big diningroom was hung with flags of tho Empire, and red, white, and blue were used as appropriate table, decorations for this the first "Empire dinner" given by the circle. Nothing could have been more enthusiastically Imperial than the sentiments' expressed 'by the various speakers, • but as they all represented different, parts of the Empire, each had to lay' special stress on the charms of ono. special, section, and so the' guests went homo with, a fund of useful' inforr mation-coucerning the Empire, from New Zealand .to'• Vancouver, across Africa.

Sir Pieter B. Stewart-Bam, M.L.A., representing South Africa, made quite an unconventional speech when'he urged the people of England to bo more truly Imperial, to concern, themselves less with their own politics, which, after all,' were, only "parochial" (it was delightful to hear the sincerity with which he told them that), and to think more of the Empire. Ho hod been shocked, he said, to find on several occasions that'the Imperial, spirit was being used as a help in party warfare, apd ho assured them that though in South Africa far greater differences had divided tho country than'were how'disturbing English parties, they had fofthe sake of the Imperial good sunk -all disagreements, and agreed to work.together, harmoniously. Sir. George Iteid's wittyspeech, afterwards struck tho same note, and he insisted that the old ideas of the glory of Empire had altered since the days of/.-Napoleon's, dreams, that now England found tho pride of her Empire not in her armies, but in her. law. Courts, where justice I was metod out "to Englishman and native subject alike. Ho said als'o a great many nice things about the ladios, and very richly did they,:: deserve "them, for the three women who spoke," Sirs. YorkeTrotter, Miss Pullen-Burry (a lecturer who visited Canada, South Africa, and Australia, and at least the north of Auckland), and Miss Cameron, were quite as eloquent and as *.rell worth listening to as the men. '■, ■•■ ", • Miss. Agnes Deans Cameron, who responded, to the toast of "Women of tho Lmpite" is a Canadian, who, after travel-ling-through the length and breadth-of: Canada, has come-over here as the agent of the Canadian government to lecture.on the Dominion. She'gave a lecture illustrated with limelight viows the other day at tho''Lyceum Club, which any traveller, might he proud'of, and thero she told the story of. her trip .up the Mackenzie liiver, right to the Arctio Circle. She has in her day been both teacher and journalist, and she. has an extraordinary power of 'putting into, her descriptions the thrill and charm that she herself experienced. This'is her first visit to England, and ardent Imperialist as she is.ouo can see that she fairly tingles with joy and pride in tho greatness of England. That she can seo the other side of the picture was proved that night at the club dinner, when she'broke,off inier extolling of-the ■women;,'of the, Empire, to say something of what,- she had seen during a recent visit to Loudon slums, the pity and the misery.of it. I i'o. not know whether Miss Cameron is, likely, to visit New Zealand. She says! she'would like to, mid certainly her lecture would be very much appreciated there. Mr. Henniker Heaton also, he says, cherishes a hopo of visiting New Zealand, but he was not able to say what prospect there was of his being able to do so in the near future.

Sir William Hall-Jones was sitting near Lady Stout, and it was not. to be supposed that. he. would he allowed to miss the chaucoof saying something in favour of .tho way New Zcnland women, use their power as electors. He rose to the occasion bravely, aild paid a tribute to New. Zealand's women electors that satisfied us all. / •■-"