LONDON MEETING

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 11, 8 October 1943, Page 6

LONDON MEETING

Wellington Girl Representative A Wellington girl, Miss Barbara Gillespie, represented tbe Victoria league, Wellington, at the recent annual meeting of tbe London■ league. Her impressions of the gathering, were conveyed in an interesting letter that has jnst been received by the Wellington league and which speaks of the Empire-wide interests that this organization fosters in its work. One member had jnst returned from Canada .'.and another from South Africa, their addresses forming highlights of the meeting.! for which the Duchess of Devonshire was in the chair. The Duchess and her sister were •extremely pleasant' people, Miss Gillespie said. They were C'eeils and were as good speakers as the men in their family, Lady Harlieh specially. Both were completely natural and have that ineffable eharm of the really cultured families of England. Lady Harlieh, who spoke about South Africa, from which she had just returned, was busy planning, for the part the league would play in the aftermath of the war. An interesting fact told by the woman back from Canada was that the Canadian government, in conjunction with various committees, had set up informal schools to give courses to teach girls, who had married Canadians, something of the country. They dealt with tbe. differences in racial temperament, standards of living and climate, the things, they were likely to find in the new country that would be different from anything they had previously known. The girls found out why there were differences and how either these things or they, themselves, could be adapted. , Hopkinson House, the newest league ■club for Empire' servicemen, was used for the meeting. The writer said it was a lovely old house that seemed almost to have been built for its present purpose. There was a cheerful looking basement canteen and four floors of rooms above. Features were a shop on the ground floor and a sick bay with a matron in attendance, who told Miss Gillespie she was always kept busy, attending the men for minor cuts and ills. Empire servicemen had said onq of the things they liked so much about the league clubs were the flowers. The Nutford Place and the Hopkinson House club both had lovely gardens with deck chairs for the men to lounge in. Those who attended the annual meeting lunched in the club’s billiard room which had French doors opening on to the gardens, where bright pink geraniums made a brilliant splash of colour. The war had done one good thing in bringing Victoria League branches in the Dominions so much closer to the headquarters in London, the writer said.