LECTURE BY MISS BEGG

Hokitika Guardian, 13 November 1930, Page 8

LECTURE BY MISS BEGG

WOMEN’S WORK AT HONOLULU

Some of the problems which confronted the women at the recent PanPacific Women’s Conference at Honolulu were explained by one of the delegates from the Dominion, Miss Jean Begg, at a meeting of the Auckland branch of tbe League of Nations Union.

The object of the union, said Miss Begg, was to strengthen the bonds of peace between Pacific countries by promoting understanding amongst the women of those areas, and to study and attempt to solve the social problems which confronted them. At the recent conference there were delegates from twelve different countries, including China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, America, Samoa, Canada and Mexico. In Honolulu, remarked Miss Begg, there was no official knowledge of New Zealand 'Samoa, as distinct from the American naval base.'

The atmosphere of Honolulu—the crossroads of the Pacific—was itself a revelation to the delegates and soon removed any feeling of strangeness. “We. hear comments of American dominance in social work in China and Japan,” said the speaker, “but we have no right to grudge this dominance so long as we are not prepared to share the burden.”

The outstanding figure of the conference wap Dame Rachel Orowdy, the chief of the Opium Traffic Section of the League of Nations, and formerly commandant of the V.A.D. She brought to tTie conference a wide and exact knowledge of social problems. The New Zealand delegates found themselves at some disadvantage in that they lacked information' about anything except their own branch of investigation. Health, industry, education, social science, home economics and government were some of the subjects discussed. The conference recorded its appreciation of the work of the League of Nations, in investigating the traffic in women and children and in publishing a document on film censorship, dealing especially with the taste of the children themselves, who were often bored by “suitable” films. The whole question of the effect of cinemas on the life of the community was fully and frankly discussed. “A strongly-developed public opinion,” said Dame Rachel, ‘‘is far more powerful than any censorship.”

During the .conference J)r Georgina Sweet, of Melbourne, was elected president of the union. Her motto was an auspicious one, “Informed good will.”