WOMAN'S WORLD

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 250, 16 July 1919, Page 5

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Continued from Pago 4) Workers' Educational Association, At the invitation of the Theosophical Society Miss England *ave a very interesting lecture last evening at the Theosophical Hall) Marion street, upon the aims and activities of the Workers' Educational Association, and the success it had achieved since its foundation iu Jingland iu 1003. Major Smytho presided. The lecturer said that the association grew out of the request of a small group of trade. unionists in Lancashire, who approached the University gf Oxford asking for some means of obtaining university teaching without tho necessity ot keeping terms at Oxford. In 1907 a conference of Labour representatives and of the University wis held iu Oxford, and a plan drawn up by weans of which tutorial classes could 1)0 instituted in any working class centre asked for fulfilling the necessary conditions. The movement grew rapidly, and classes were instituted in connection with all University centres throughout England. In 1913 lilr. Nansbridge, its secretary, visited Australia at the reii'aest of the University, with tho result that <he Governments'of New South Wales, Western Australia, and Victoria supported the movement, and Sydney invited Professor Meredith Atkinson to lake charge of the tutorial classes and to fill the post of Director of Economics, Sydney University. In 1915 Professor Atkinson visited New Zealand, in company with Mr. Stewart, and inaugurated the movement in the Dominion, a movement which, in spite of the war an dthe attendant difficulties of raising funds, progressed in ail four centres. The lecturer concluded by pointing out the great value of the work to all adults as a means of studying economics and other subjects under highly qualified tutors, and of the opportunities for full discussion of all social problems which were afforded at the classes. She maintained that such education was essential to the progress of education in New Zealand, and was the 'best means of promoting a genuine interest of all sections of the- community in social l reconstruction. An interesting discussion followed the lecture, and a hearty vote cf thanks to Miss England for her very interesting address was passed. "Beware of Uncharitable Speech," One of Edith Cavell's last letters, written to her' nurses at the Ecole Beige d'lnfirmicres Diploinees, in Brussels, was hung in its frame recently lieside a photograph of the martyred nurse in the living room of the Redi Cross Nurses' Home, 38 West Forty-eighth Street, Now York. Tho letter was written on the eve of her execution, and has only recently .been received in America. It is dated October 12, 1915, Prison of St. Gilles, Brussels. In it Miss Cavell reviewed her eight years in charge of the nurses' school, her friendships and work, admonishing gently thoso who l succeeded her to put duty first before them. In one passage she said: "I told you that devotion to duty would bring you true happiness, and that the thought you had done your duty earnestly and ■ cheerfully before God and your own conscience would be your greatest support in the trying moments of life and in the face of death. Do not forget. Having already travelled 6o far through life I should perhaps see more clearly than you and show you the straight path'. Beware of uncharitable speech. In these eight years I'have seen so much unhappiness which could have been avoided or lessened if a few words had not been whispered hero and there. Perhaps without evil intention, but which ruined the reputation, the happiness, the life , even of some one. My nurses should all reHcot cn that, and should cultivate among themselves loyalty and esprit de corps. If any one of you has a grievance against mo I pray you to forgive me. I may sometimes have been, too severe, l>ut I was never willingly unjust, and I have loved you all far more than jon realise."

Mrs. Lloyd George on Social Barriers. Mrs. Lloyd George has written ail article for - tlie Paris "Journal," and. .the Exchange correspondent sends a few extracts. ■ She heads the article "Help for the Lonely," and says: "Wo ought to do everything; to maintain in ppace the spirit of camaraderie which was one of tlie great compensations of the war. It appears that certain municipalities. have categorically, refused the gift of a cannon. I am not at all surprised. If I had lost a son in the war I would, not like_ to see a German cannon every timo I visited the public park or 6auntered across the. village green. But if the authorities 6ent to each town, village, and hamlet one'of those huts used at the front, and which the lads of tho village would be happy to re-erect in 48 hours, I am sure that such a present would not be declined. "Why should this horrible war have been needed to teach us cordiality and solidarity? In any case, wo have now learned the truth, and ought not to return td our old system of hermetically sealed society, a society feparated into watertight compartments. We must not cultivate that reserve and timidity which existed at a time when the separation of the classec was a dogma which we fervently worshipped, and when it unfortunately often happened that wo lived for. years in a neighbourhood without knowing our own neighbours." / Human Spinning Tops. Father Bernard Vaughan is among those who are alarmed at recent tendencies in women's evening dress wear. , "Thero is' always a section of the community," he said recently, "which tries to live on headlines, snapshots, and picture shows. Like spinning-tops, they feel there is no use for them except when swinging round. Their ideal rises little higher than the jazz, and tho music of their life i 6 not unlike, its noise. For them there is no sin but being dull, and no remorse but being found out. ''The only hope for these is that, given time, they will-weary of pirouetting, and then, when pause oomes, my hope is that they will ask themselves, .'ls it not-time for us, like the bloom of tho field, to turn our faces from earth to heaven, whence comes not merely tho beauty and perfume of flowers, but ako the virtue and sweetness of maidens."