ROTARY CLUB

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 July 1942, Page 4

ROTARY CLUB

PROGRESS OF MOVEMENT GROWTH SURVEYED. BUSINESS AT MASTERTON LUNCHEON. Today’s luncheon meeting of the Masterton Rotary Club saw the club again in full swing after two informal meetings which had been decided upon in order to allow members to fulfil their obligations following the earthquake. There was a good attendance of members, presided over by the president, Mr Norman Lee. In view of the fact that Rotary clubs in Wellington and Auckland had just celebrated their 21st birthdays appropriate addresses in honour of the occasion were made by Messrs S. L. P. Free, a foundation member of the Masterton Club, and Mr J. H. Cunningham, this year’s vice-president. In the course of his talk Mr Free gave a most interesting survey of Rotary in New Zealand. He told of the visit of the two envoys from Canada, James Davidson and Colonel Layton Ralston, the present Canadian Minister for Defence, as a result of which Rotary was founded in New Zealand and administered by a Special Commissioner of Rotary International (Sir George Fowlds), Auckland, until the formation of the 53rd District in 1925. Mr Free spoke of the great work done by Jim Davidson, who had been with Peary on his polar expedition and later had been consular agent at Shanghai. In his pioneering trip Jim Davidson, with the help of Venizelos, had formed a club in Greece. He followed this up with a club at Jerusalem, where it was said that at this club was the only possible place where Jew and Arab would sit down together. From there Davidson went to Cairo, to India, to the Federated Malay States and .to Singapore. At Singapore the members represented 18 different nationalities. From there he went to Siam where the first President of the Bangkok Club was a brother of the reigning Sovereign. Mr Free stated that though these countries were now under the shadow of war he felt that the time would come when the basis of friendship and service would once again come into their own and the good work done by this Rotary pioneer would bear greater fruit. Jim Davidson did not long survive his two and a half years’ mis-sion-worn out with his work in trying climes he died a few short months ago after his return home but his work still lives.

Dealing with the history of the Rotary movement, Mr J. H. Cunningham said a young American lawyer, Paul Harris by name, together with three others constituted the first group to foregather in the fellowship of Rotary. Rotary was founded on February 23, 1905. The group included members of American, German, Swedish and Irish ancestry and representatives of the Protestant, Catholic and Jewish faiths.' Mr Cunningham proceeded to refer to those connected with the early days of the movement. The meetings were different from those of other clubs of the day—they were far more intimate and far more friendly. Within a few years Rotary expanded from a local group, gathered together in Chicago for mutual advantage and fellowship to ah organisation of international vision and nobility of purpose. The first convention was held in Chicago in 1910. Rotary’s missioners carried the message to all parts of the world and clubs were established in South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the islands of the Eastern Seas. Apart from the founder, two men who were destined to leave an indelible imprint upon the movement were Chesley R. Perry, of Chicago, and Arthur Frederick Sheldon, of Michigan. At the 1921 Convention, Sheldon was selected to interpret to British rotarians the ideal of service as understood in America and Chesley Perry was'the only national and international secretary the movement had ever known. In 1922 the name Rotary International was adopted. The all-round Rotarian was interested in club, vocational, community and international service. In the atmosphere of fellowship great things were possible, even the advancement of understanding, goodwill and international peace. At the close of 1938, the number of registered clubs was 4807, with a membership of 203,000.