20 YEARS AFTER — AND PEACE?

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 24, 25 November 1938, Page 5

20 YEARS AFTER — AND PEACE?

| Youth At Armistice Day | Concert Challenges Doubts For Future lt might have been. a@ fouch of genius that inspired Dorothy Wood fo hold the Happiness Club Concert on the night before Armistice Day-fraught with frightening _ memories for the older generation-to swell the funds of the Plunket Society, the "quardians of the new."

spite of armaments race, panic im Europe, and all the harbingers of war, the Happiness Club-and Dorothy, commemorated the agony of remembrance of Armistice Day,, 1918, not the careful. reiteration of platitudes, but with a splen-didly-planned concert im the .. Auckland Town Hall that raised ~ £208 for the care of New Zea~ ) land babies. There "was showmanship, but not charlatanism, and the ds-« sembled strength of the Happiness Club packed the big hall, The. whole evening was con ceived with artistry and imagination. The artists were youngJune Barson, winner af ZB’s Deanna Durbin contest; Alam Loveday, 10-year-old genius of the violin, and a string of assistants: from 1ZB’s staff, most of whom. were too young ¢yver to have taken active part in war. Gloria Rawlinson, outstanding New Zealand poet, was present om the stage. She wrote a poenr specially for the concert. Its. message was significant,. and those in front-received it with a moment of utter silence:

a = before applause, a tribute which is paid not only to artists at their greatest maments-to Pavjova when she iizd finished the "Swan" dance, ta Kreisler when "fe finally raises how from strings, and on that same night to Alan Loveday, almast habyish boy of 10, when he completed the difficult passages of a Rondo by Mozart. Gloria Rawlinson’s poem challenged the remembrance of Armistice Day in our time. Tt is printed here specially for "Record" readers: "TWENTY YEARS AFTER." Does she belong herve end is she. Auman? Why is she fetiered-acho signs her release? Why is she silent Tike a dead woman? Twenty years after-is this rcally Peace? How fron ihe rabble af hate can we raise fier? No farthing pieces ef lave can. availOnly the songs of the peonte that praise her Girdle the earth-and song cannot fail.

Only from hearts where her song has alighted, ; Only the voice af the people united Can break through the dark zones of hatred again. Life’s yet to become as @ circle anbroken Love's still ta be learned and the word spoken Though twenty years after, is never in vain. Happiness ClInb’s concert was a success on another point when the Mayor, Sir Ernest Davis, handed aver the cheque of £208 to Mrs. J. G,. Allan, President of the Auckland branch of the Piunket Society. Their answer in raising funds for the younger generation was a manifest ‘challenge ta the vexed question .of Peace. And they maintained the title of Happiness. Happiness Club, organised and broadcast. by Dorothy from 125 every day between 1.30 and 2 p.m. except on Sunday, now has a rising membership of 4700. Dorothy broadcasts: letters, words of cheer, and: club: activities daily. In May, the Mother’s Day coneert raised £160 for the endowment of a. cot at the Auckland Hospital. In June the club held a charity ball which raised £200: for the Community Sunshine Association in Auckland, and now, in November, £208 has been raised for the Plunket Society-a total of £568!