ESPERANTO

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 July 1941, Page 5

ESPERANTO

MASTERTON CLUB MEETING. The weekly meeting of the Masterton Esperanto Club was held last evening, Mr A. G. Wiltshire presiding in the unavoidable absence of the president, Mr W. J. Beresford. Mr Wiltshire, commenting on the Esperanto Year Book for 1941 just to hand from London, said that the publication disclosed some interesting points regarding Esperanto in New Zealand, as related to the international organisation. The International Esperanto League in 1940 had members in 54 countries and of the number New Zealand shared 12th place with Australia, compared on a membership basis. As regards life members of the organisation, New Zealand was in the third position equal with Italy, Switzerland and U.S.A. In the statistics relating to I.E.L. delegates, the Dominion was placed ninth in a list comprising 43 countries. It was noteworthy, however, that a number of the larger countries were not included, due, no doubt, to their participation in the'war. Mrs N. Lamont presented a short amusing monologue in Esperanto, entitled “How to Cook Steak,” and the secretary (Mr W. H. King) gave a further talk of his series: “From the Life of a Soldier.”

Reading, translation and spoken Esperanto were undertaken with the assistance of the all-Esperanto magazine, “La Interna Idc-o,” during the final portion of the evening and proved to be very helpful and interesting.