LONELIEST WHITE WOMAN.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 July 1921, Page 5

LONELIEST WHITE WOMAN.

WORK AMONG LEPERS IN INDIAN HILLS. ‘Alary Reed, the. missioner in Chandag, India, is one of the lonliest, yet one of the most noble white women in the world,” said Mr. Oldrieve, organising secretary to the Mission to Lepers in India, who arrived in London recently. Mr- Oldrieve has just finished a three years’ tour, during which he travelled ZOjOOO miles, visiting all the leper stations in India. “I visited Mary Reed, herself a victim of the malady, in October last,” he told a pressman, “and I am pleased to say that she is still able to carry on her spiritual work amongst the afflicted—a wonderful life of devotion in a remote spot in the Himalayas, which she has now carried on for 30 years. “Alone amongst the lepers, Mary Reed seldom sees white people. She has her little churfih in mountainous country, nearly 6000 ft above sea level.” Mr. Oldrieve and his wife took five days to travel from the nearest civilised point to this remote part, passing through beautiful pine forests, where great hordes of monkeys were chattering. Chandag leper community is about 60 miles from the nearest railhead, and a halt had to be made at the rest bungalow in the mountains built by the Ge“ernment for their officials travelling in these out-of-the-way parts. Chandag is about 30 miles from the Tibet country “Aft<?r our five days’ journey, waiting tor us at the end of an avenue of ph e trees we saw Mary Reed We found her, m spite of her isolation, one of the mo-t cheerful of persons. The house in which she formerly lived fell to pieces during an earthquake, and is now an old ruin. | ‘There are 46 women lepers in thej community in which Miss .Reed lives, and up in these lonely heights she lir.s had a hand in everything connected with the leper asylum.”

These unfortunate people call Miss Reed their “dear mother,” in such affection is she hold. In the men’s refuge further away there are ][) lepers, and these also are under Miss Reed’s care and guidance. Mr. Oldrieve said there are now over 200,000 lepers in India, and the work of the mission is increasing rapidly, but great help is forthcoming from the provincial Governments. Remarkable advance has been made on the medical side of the problem. “At present,” he declard, “it is not right to say that any cure has been found, but the research work and system of treatment of Sir Leonard Rogers is extremely hopeful, and in a few months much more might have to be made public upon this subject. “In my tours of the asylums I have seen eases of persons who, by certain treatment, have befn made a great deal better, and medical specialist opinion in India is more hopeful now of success than ever before.”