NOTABLE ENGLISH VISITOR

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 237, 4 July 1944, Page 6

NOTABLE ENGLISH VISITOR

Mrs. Grenfell Arrives

“New Zealand has a special interest for me because of my grandfather’s association witli its early colonization.” said Mrs. Arthur Grenfell, vice-president, of the Y.W.C.A. of Great Britain and a member of I he world executive committee, when interviewed in t Auckland at tlie weekend, following her arrival by air from Australia.

Site is expected to arrive in Wellington at tlie beginning of next week, following a visit to Christchurch, and will remain ■ here till she leaves for overseas again. She will return to England via America. The mayoress. Mrs. Appleton. will give a reception in tile Concert Chamber of the Town Hall in her honour on the Wednesday afternoon. At • night Mrs. Grenfell will speak to the younger women at another gathering in the Concert Chamber. , Mrs. Grenfell’s grandfather. Lord Lyttelton, became interested in New Zealand as a result of a meeting with Edward Gibbon Wakefield at Malvern Wells, where Wakefield was recuperating from a severe illness caused by his prolonged labours in connexion with the colonization of New Zealand. It was at Malvern (Veils that, with the help of John Robert Godley. be laid the foundations of the Canterbury settlement and enlisted the sympathy and support of Lord Lyttelton, who became first a member and then chairman of the Canterbury Association, and whose name the port, of Lyttelton now bears.

“I camo to the Dominion nt the invitation of the Y.W.C.A. of New Zealand, but my mission is really to bring messages of good fellowship, not only from the Y.W.C.A., but from the women of Great Britain generally to the women of New Zealand.” said Mrs. Grenfell, who will also broadcast personal messages from (be Quecn and from Mrs. Churchill, president of tlie British Y.W.C.A. War Services Committee. This committee works in the closest co-operation with the Government, which nut it in charge of amenities for women in the various war services, such ns clubs, hostels and canteens. To Loam of Women's War Work.

The wife of Lieutenant-Colonel Grenfell. D. 5.0.. Mrs. Grenfell has been closely associated with Mrs. Churchill in the enormous development of the wartime services of the Y.W.C.A. Site "lived in Westminster all through the blitz and wits instrumental in getting large (Vest End houses requisitioned as community homes for bombed-out families. She is keenly interested to learn all she can of New Zealand women's war work. “I am specially struck.” she said, “by the freshness and vigour of tlie young people here and in Australia. It. is most marked by comparison with file tired look of the young folk at home, worn by the strain of war.” Mrs. Grenfell was president of the Y.W.C.A. of Great Britain from 1934 to 1942. The president now is Lady Helen Graham, Lady-in-Waiting to the Queen. Mrs. Grenfell was granted air priority for the tour she is making by the British Government. She left Britain on New Year’s Day. and has visited North Africa, Egypt, Iran. Palestine, India. Australia and New Guinea. Site is seeing as much as possible of the war service work done by the Y.W.C.A. and will carry back direct reports of the survey work she is doing to Mrs, Churchill and which the Queen will also see.