Aunt Daisy's Trip To America (2)

New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 279, 27 October 1944, Page 22

Aunt Daisy's Trip To America (2)

OU will remember that I was telling you last week of organisations which helped to smooth my path in America, and I had got as far as;the NBC and our own Legation in Washington. The latter was really like a home and family, for besides helping me over the

big Mountains of Difficulty, it slid me gently over innumerable little Hills, and I felt it at the back of me all the time. Then there were the British Information Services. They do an enormous amount of work with a minimum of publicity. It was they who, together with our very popular and efficient New Zealand representative in San Francisco, Mr. Pilcher, and our liaison officer, Lieutenant Colonel Halliwell, met my ship? got me quickly past Immigration and Customs Officers, and had me addressing a Press conference within half-an-hour of landing. This Press conference started my ball rolling, and helped me tremendously. About 20 to 25 newspapers were represented, and paragraphs about New Zealand, and "the Lady from Down Under" appeared all over the country, so that I found people knew about me when I arrived at other places. The Christian Science Monitor was particular generous; and the Washington Post, the New York Post and the World Telegram followed up with further good articles and photographs when I reached those cities. It was chiefly through the British Information Services, too, that I was invited out to see the huge Kaiser shipyards, and gave-three luncheon’ talks there. This was a really wonderful experience, and will make. a complete story in itself. About 20,000 women alone work there, and they are paid exactly the same as the men for equal work. Then there were three huge business coricerns, which extend all over the world, and with whose New Zealand advertising I am concerned. Through these firms I saw a great deal of specialised work, including the whole process of the manufacture of penicillin, besides receiving the utmost personal friendship and hospitality. Link With Daisy Chain I am very glad t6 be able to tell you that the interest my broadcasts aroused in America is to have what I hope will be a permanent result} for I was invited to become the first international member of the Association of Women Directors of the National Association of Broadcasters, This influential body of over 600 women will! keep in regular touch with me, and will send me summaries of their meetings and discussions and of the, projects which they undertake. They hold the view that radio broadcasts to women should be treated seriously; should not only raise their cultural level, but also keep them informed as to the work of such bodies as the International Council ‘of Women, in combating social evils, and in the promotion of peace. Last year their chief. project was "The American Home Campaign,"’ whith meant that the underlying "motif" of all women’s programmes for a few months was the betterment of the home-materially, spiritually, ar-tisticalily-in every way. Into this: campaign were gathered all the women’s clubs of America — numbering 20,000,000 women; and to our Women’s Institutes, W.D.F.U., University Women’s Clubs, EnglishSpeaking Union, League of Mothers (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) and Mothers’ Union, Catholic Women’s Clubs, National Council of Women, Red Cross and St. John Ambulance, Y.W.C.A., etc. All these were actively concentrating on the "Home Campaign" for some months, working with American enthusiasm and ingenuity and holding all kinds of competitions in connection with it. The campaign closed with a network broadcast by Mrs. Dickenson, the president of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, whom I visited in Washington in connection with our own Women’s Institutes. Mrs. Dorothy Lewis, the enthusiastic promoter of the movement, whose title is "N.A.B. Coordinator of Listener Activity," and who arranged my membership of the A.W.D., has already posted to me a summary of this "Home Campaign" which, I think, will be of great interest to our own women’s organisations. The Outward Journey We left Auckland on April 14, and we steamed up the beautiful harbour of San Francisco at sunset on April 27. Very good going! The journey was reasonably comfortable, and ‘fortunately without incident, although we were required to carry our lifebelts with us wherever we went, and had regular boat-drill. When I went aboard, a polite and smiling American officer said, "Passenger, Ma’am? Stateroom No. 1." This sounded promising, but a sailor conducted me down first one flight of stairs and then down a narrower one, and finally down a near-ladder, which led into the first hold! Here a fairly large area had been partitioned off and made ready to accommodate the 19 American nurses, three New Zealand brides and myself. There were beds enough for 27, however — wire bunks painted white and arranged in three tiers down the middle of the room, There were also 27 pegs in the wall and 27 lockers, in which we kept our shoes and books and "whatnots," hanging our dresses on our peg. Our suitcases we did not unpack more than we could:help, and we stowed them away nice and shipshape. The big air-conditioning pipes ran overhead, and. the electric lighting was adequate. The large wash-room led out of this dormitory; we had three shower-baths, each with hot and cold fresh water-a great boon, not available to the men on board -and four wash-basins were fixtures against the wall, with mirrors and a little shelf above them. The 19 nurses were a _ wonderful crowd. Accustomed to living in tents during their sojourn in the Islands, or in their training camps, they understood exactly how to make the most of our limited space; and their neatness and consideration for each other were beyond praise. They were always washing clothes, ironing on improvised tables, shampooing and setting one another’s hair; they kept themselves immaculate at all times; they spoke quietly and never disturbed anybodyfine women! They were returning home after many months of duty. : (To be continued)