LEAGUE OF MOTHERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 March 1942, Page 4

LEAGUE OF MOTHERS

MASTERTON BRANCH. AN INTERESTING ADDRESS. The Masterton branch of the League of Mothers held its first meeting this year in the Parish Hall yesterday afternoon when Mrs L. B. Maunsell presided over a large attendance of old and new members. It was decided that the annual church parade be held at the Methodist Church on Mothers’ Day, the second Sunday in May. Mrs J. McGregor forwarded her resignation as the league’s representative on the Patriotic Committee. Mrs Maunsell thanked Mrs McGregor for her work on the committee. Mrs Jordan spoke in a similar strain. Mrs Marchbanks consented to represent the league on the Patriotic Committee. Mrs Rich appealed for old woollen socks, which would be sent to the Rest Room to be made into mittens.

It was decided that the League be responsible for the shop day to be helS on Friday, March 27, and all members and friends are requested to leave anything saleable at the depot near ths Midland Hotel on that day. Although the personnel of the choir has dwindled it rendered two very much appreciated items. Mrs Maunsell introduced Miss Ethel Law, Dominion Secretary of the Y.W.C.A., who spoke on “What some of our New Zealand women are doing in war service overseas.” Miss Agnes Moncrieff, of the Wairarapa, left New Zealand last July on her return to China, said the speaker. She spent August and September in Rangoon. From, there she went by truck up the Burma Road, taking a month to reach her new headquarters at Chengtu. Miss Moncrieff was the New Zealand Y.W.C.A. representative, and was engaged in work which was the women’s counterpart of that established in China by the well known New Zealander, Rewi Alley. Others mentioned by the speaker included Miss Leila Bridgeman, the secretary of the Wellington Y.W.C.A., who was sent to Singapore, and of whom no news had been received since the fall of that city; Miss Jean Begg, of Wellington, who organised the British Y.W.C.A. war services in the Middle East; Miss Betty Lorrimer, and Miss Meg Saunders. The speaker said that a Maharajah, knowing the work of Miss Begg, whom he had met in India, gave her his palace in Cairo for a club, and Miss Begg and Miss Lorrimer went to an Egyptian Christian and persuaded him to lend them his palatial houseboat on the Nile. This is now staffed by the Y.W.C.A. and will accommodate 40 nurses on leave. In conclusion Miss Law read a short article by Mrs David Smith, the president of the Y.W.C.A. entitled “The Habit of Courage.” Mrs Maunsell in thanking Miss Low for her interesting address, stated that all must feel proud of what New Zealand women were achieving overseas. The tea hostesses were Mesdames Maunsell, Major, Kings and Miller

Hope. Sympathy was expressed with Mesdames Heyder, Falloon and KentJohnston, and the relatives of the late Mrs A. D. Low, one of the foundation members of the League of Mothers, in their bereavements.