N.Z. "EXHIBIT A"

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 55, 2 September 1944, Page 10

N.Z. "EXHIBIT A"

REPUTATION ABROAD

Mrs. Peter Fraser, wife of the Prime Minister, and Mrs. Sydney Greenbie of America, wife of • the newlyappointed chief of the Office of War Information in New Zealand, were the guests of honour at-a reception given yesterday afternoon by the Pioneer Club. .The large, sunny lounge was crowded with members anxious- to hear a talk by Mrs. Fraser about her visit to England, and to meet Mrs. Greenbie The guests yaf honour were received a,nd welcomed by Miss Amy Kane president;. Mrs. R...J. Booth, and Mrs' Vxckery,, and ■ were presented with sprays of flowers. -Everywhere, she went people were tremendously interested in New Zea-; land, said Mrs. Fraser. In America .New Zealand was Exhibit A, and people there often expressed to her their gratitude for the hospitality American servicemen had found in New Zealand. "You were heavenly to our boys," they said. ,"It is almost impossible to live up to the reputation that we have over-seas,"-said Mrs. Fraser, "and it is all due to our own boys, , who are such wonderful ambassadors." Whenever Mrs. Fraser has made a speech since her return from Great Britain she.has never failed to mention with the greatest admiration the work ;6f the.. women in the House Country. Obviously, it was the spirit of the women of Britain and the vital and valiant part they' are playing in the war that made the deepest impression upon her, and with her gift for vivid description' she has managed to convey this impression to her audiences in Wellington. VITAL TO THE INVASION. Had it not been for the women, the invasion of Normandy could not have taken place, said Mrs. Fraser yesterday. She had been assured of this by an official of the Ministry of Information, who also told her that 30 women mathematicians had been given the tremendous job of calculating the amount of equipment that would be .required for the invasion. , 'She,went on to describe some of the new and highly technical jobs that women were now doing in every branch of the Service, and also the hard manual labour they had undertaken, such as the scraping and repainting of ships in dry dock. Prior to the invasion, and in bitterly cold weather, many of those working on the docks had gladly given up their halfday and Sunday in order to have the ships1 ready. The four outstanding women of this war, said Mrs. Fraser, were undoubtedly the Queen, Mrs. Churchill, Mrs. Roosevelt, and Madame Chiang Kaishek. She spoke of the Queen's great charm and her interest in all that concerned the welfare of women 'and children, and she described Mrs. Churchill as one of the most charming, able, and practical women she had met. Mrs. Roosevelt, she said, was truly marvellous. She did good work that no one ever heard about, and a man in New York had described Mrs. ] Roosevelt to her as the most Christ-1 like person he had ever known, never thinking of herself and always thinking of others.