GIRL GUIDE MOVEMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 12 July 1930, Page 8

GIRL GUIDE MOVEMENT

NEW HEADQUARTERS,

FOUNDATION STONE LAYING

PRINCESS MARY’S IP ART

LONDON, May 30,

A very happy and important func-

tion in connection with the Girl Guide movement was the foundation stone laying ceremony of the new Imperial headquarters, in Palace street, Westminister, on. May 23. Princess Mary, Countess of Hare-wood, dressed in her uniform as president of the as-

sociation, performed the ceremony in

the presence of a number of prominent men and woman, who included Lord Baden-Powell, Lady BadenPoweU, Miss Baden-Powell, Lady Clinton, Viscountess . Chaplin, Viscountess Cave, Mrs Houison Granturd, Mrs Crichton-Miller, Lady Lilian Digby, Dame Katharine Fu.rse, Mrs Gordon Fisher, Brigadier-general E. C. Godfrey-Fauscett, Lord Hampton, Mrs W. R. Wilson (Auckland), Countess .Tellicoe, the Countess of Kenmare, Mrs Macartney, Lady Delia Peel, Lady Perrott, the Dowager Lauy Snffield, Mrs Philip Snowden, f Dame Meriel Talbot, the Dowager Lady -Swaythling, the Hon. Mrs Stuart Wortley. ■' Rangers and Guides of the headquarter’s staff fprmed a. picturesque guard of honour for Princess Mary, who was received 'by Lord Baden-Po-well; Lady Baden-Powell (Chief Guide) Dame Helen GWynne-Vaughan (chairman, of the council), Mrs Percy BirIfjy (chief commissioner), Mr P. V. Everett (hon. treasurer), and Mrs Mark Kerr (county commissioner for London) and the Mayor and Mayoress of Westminister. Lord Baden-Powell, welcoming her Royal Highness, said that Die news that the president herself had performed the stone-laying would be received with enthusiastic appreciation wherever, throughout the world, guiding was known.—(Cheers). He then made a number of presentations to her Royal Highness, among them, Miss Montgomery, 7 the general secretary, whom Princess Mary invested with the decoration oT the Silver Fish,' in recognition of her services •. to the movement. ; CASKET . AND CONTENTS. The ceremony then began. A casket had been made to contain the •following articles:—A copy of the programme for the day; a copy of “The Times’’ of the day; specimens pf current coins of the day; the current association report, and a trefoil badge'.brooch. 1 ’This was placed in' the specially prepared ,'cavit'y by the Chief Guide, tnd Dame Helen Gwynne-Yaughan then formally asked Princess Mary to receive a trowel from the architect, with which she spread the mortar. The stone was lowered carefully and the ca.sket walled into the building, and her Royal Highness, after tapping it into position with a gavel, declared the stone “to be well and truly laid.’’ Noit the choir of Guides sang the impressive and quaint old hymn “God be in My Head,” and Lord. BadenPowell offered a prayer. Psalm cxxvii followed, and after the blessing the hymn, “lilesse Ye Foure Corners of Thys House.” ADEQUATE ACCOMMODATION. When completed the new building will be six storeys high, and will accommodate the administrative departments, in addition to providing space for the display of Guide and camp equipment. The growth of the movement throughout the Empire made necessary an adequate headquarters, at a cost of £74,500. Tins sum is being raised in the association by means of small subscriptions—some of them very small. Since 1925, when the last extension of premises book place, the growth of the movement is shown by the increase in numbers through, the Em-

pire from 441,270 in that year to 575,530 at the end of 1928. To keep pace with the work the staff has steadily grown from 51 in 1920 to 130 in 1929. An average day’s post is 500 .hitters. In a very busy week as many as 2700 parcels have- been packed; in the year 1928 88,573 parcels were despatched. ’ When, the new headquarters is built there will be more space in which to receive overseas visits, and a room where meetings may be lieldi H R.H. Princess Mary, years ago, expressed the wish that the committee might be better housed. In supporting this appeal she satisfied herself by a prolonged visit, in which nothing from the topmost garret to the darkest and dampest basement has been concealed, that it was essential for the good of the staff and for the movement as a whole that the headquarters of so important an organisation should be well housed. RETURN OF MISS DALTON. Miss J. Dalton has returned from her visit to New Zealand, undertaken in the interests of the Girl Guides. She is desribed by the Hull Daily Mail.—Hull being her home town — as, “exactly the bright, vivacious type of young lady most suitable for propaganda work of that kind, having an unshakeable faith in the merits and worth of the Girl Guide ideals and maxims, and also an inspiring an infectious enthusiam in the presentation oi those Ideals, and in explaining the aims and objects of the Girl Guide movement. . . . She was given a great ovation when leaving the country, and has undoubtedly done much to consolidate the brandies already formed, and to endear the Girl Guide movement generally, in the hearts of the iwvrents.”