STUDENTS IN FRANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 7, 9 January 1932, Page 10

STUDENTS IN FRANCE

M. PAUL SERRE'S COURTESY

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

LONDON, 26th November.

Wellington and Christchurchj or, speaking scholastically, Victoria and Canterbury Colleges, ate represented by four students at present engaged in France in widening and deepening their knowledge of the French language. The two Wellingtonians, Mr; Fraser Mackenzie and Mr. Alwyn 0. Keys, have quarters at Canada House, in the Cite Universetaire, the residential section of the- vast University of Paris—the Sor-■bonne-^-which has^bout 30,000 students attending its various courses. . Mr. Mackenzie, who holds a scholarship in Arts, is at present working on a thesis on comparative English and French language study, which he will shortly present to the faculty ia pursuit of the degree of Doctor. He -will be called upon to sustain his thesis in public, no mean test of ability in a foreign language. Mr. Mackenzie expects to return to New Zealand sonic time iv. 1932. . ,

Mr. Keys, holder of a French Scholarship, is now in his second year at the Sorbonne. He is preparing a thesis in French on the musical adaptations of Shakespeare, Racine, and Victor Hugo between 1770 and 1850. '

Of the Canterbury men, Mr. A. N. M'Aloon is an assistant in the Lycee Descartes, at Tours, the birthplace of Balzac. It is claimed that tho most pure French is spoken in Tpuraine, a province full of historical interest for Anglo-Saxons as well as for the Trench.

The fourth student, Mr. Hurst Dowling, of Christchurch, is attending lectures at Poitiers, not" far distant from Anglo-Saxons as well as for tie French, and English history, thus maintaining a tradition for New Zealandors that has rarely been broken.

M. Paul Serre, until recently ConsulGeneral for Prance at Auckland, shortlyafter his return to Paris made a point of looking up the New Zealanders attending the Sorbonne, an action typical of his kindly nature, which was much appreciated by them. M. Serre has put in a plea to the headquarters of the Alliance Francaise for the forwarding oJ a regular supply of modern French books and playlets to the New Zealand branches of the Alliance. M. Serre intends to settle in Monaco. ■" ■— •-■..