JAPANESE GIRL COMING TO NEW ZEALAND.

Shannon News, 12 July 1929, Page 4

JAPANESE GIRL COMING TO NEW ZEALAND.

UNDER Y.W.C.A. AUSPICES TO STUDY LIFE IN DOMINION.

Miss Kirimu San is coming to New Zealand. Mi® Kirimu San is small and dainty, from the tip of her shining head to the toes of her (tiny feet, Miss Ne,s»io Moncrieff, formerly on

the staff of the Agricultural College, Feilding, is going to Ohina. Miss Mon- \ erieff has a long list of letters after her name, and sue has long worked in student circles in New Zealand. Now Zealand wanted a cultured- edu; cuted woman from China who would explain /the China of to-day to the girls .of New Zealand, but China, at , this period, of her history, has need of her own educated women. So, Miss Kirimu San, from Japan, is coming instead.

Here you have, in a nutshell, one phase of the international work of the Y.W.C.A. Quietly, unobtrusively, without any blaring of trumpets or beating of drums, the cementing of nation with nation, through the agency of the association, is going' on. Little Miss Kirimu San herself typifies it.

Miss Kirimu San will remain in New Zealand for about six months, mixing with the New Zealand girls, and learning all she ca,n of life here. Miss Nessie Moncrieff will find her home in Shanghai, the great industrial centre of China, where are the girls who: work in Avoollen and silk mills. This is the share of the New Zealand girls towards the solution of the great problem of international peace. They pay thedr share, too, which is more than most of us do! • The expenses of fending those delegates to and fro is shouldered by the girls themselves. Each year £BO is paid out by the Christchurch members for this particular purpose. ■ Great Meeting at Budapest. Last year representatives of 48 countries all sent delegates to Budapest, in ’Czechoslovakia. Miss M. Law, Dominion secretary for New Zealand, was there to say a word for her country. “The Y.W.C.A. is, the largest inter* national organisation of women in the world,” she told a Sun reporter. “Women and girls- were there from Korea, Ohina, Japan, from the great Western v world, Canada, Peru, Ghili, Paraguay, from as far north as Iceland 1 and as far south as New Zealand.”

“How did. we manage.to talk' together? Well, the language difficulty was the great problem, but all the educated women of. the Eastern races speak English. , The English of the Koreari women is perfect. German was the language of the representatives of Central Europe, and French was largely spoken. ”,

“'jvhat did ire do? Well see this! ” M iss Law produced a mysterious slip ,oJ ! paper. On it were printed questions that set the reporter thinking and calculating a . ■ What amounts do you pay weekly for meals away from home? What amount do you spend on recreation, dances, cinemas, clubs, sports etc.? / ,

What amount for dress, including all purchases and repairs, clothing, club payments, etc.? ' There you have it! Those are just a few of the questions from the fist that lias been compiled for the information of the World’s Y.M.C.A. to be transmitted to the League of Nations Labour bureau at Geneva. Girls at Christchurch are filling in the questionaire, classified for the particular use of NeW'Zealanders by Dr. A. G. B. Fisher, of Otago University. '

Other girls in other countries are doing it, too. Everyone’s doing it—at h ast every girl who is a member of the Y.W.C.A. the world over. 1 In this way much valuable information will be garnered by the Industrial Section of tho League of, Nations Bureau. Post-War Europe.

Some experiences of post-war Europe were related by Miss Law. Post-war Europe is still in the medting-pot, and has hardly in domestic metaphor, begun to set.- An intense national consciousness has been awakened in Czechoslovakia. There the question the traveller met from students was always, “Te’ll us about your Government.” Government is the burning question nowadays. Atßratislava, a city somewhere about the size of Auckland, the Y.W.C. A., subsidised by the government, has had to step in and deal with the question of migration of the country women into the town in search of employment. ,

At the “Y.W. ” in Bratislava, no fewer than 14,000 girls passed through in the coilrse of one year. Technical classes have been established, and the health clinic in connection with the institution is the admiration and envy of doctors and nurses everywhere. “I could talk on for ever on Budapest, and of the immense interest of the countries of Central Europe, ’’ said Miss Law. “The women have had the vote since the inauguration of the republic 10 years ago. There is a spirit of community service and intense loyalty abroad. It augers well for the future of the country. ”