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So while we ponder and legislate this week On the aims and objectives of A.C.W.W. for rural uplift, may we also devise ways and means of promoting peaCe and goodwill among our own people, our own nation and our whole world family.” The GovernoraGeneral of Ceylon, Sir Oliver Goonetilleke, had been invited to declare the conference open. Sir Oliver traced the history of A,C.W.W. from the Stockholm Conference in 1933 "when the orphan left on the doorstep of the world three years previously, the Rural Section of the International Council of Wom- en, was duly constituted and christened, ‘As- sociated Country Women of the World,’ on through the Washington Conference in 1936, the London Conference in 1939 and the years of the war that followed. Sir Oliver lauded the courage of Mrs. Watt and Miss Zimmern and the executive in deciding to maintain their headquarters in London notwithstanding the generous offer of Cornell University to pro- vide a home through the war years. “When peace came,” said Sir Oliver, “your organization had so grown in stature that one devastated land after another asked for your next conference to be held in their country: they wanted guidance in grave decisions that had to be made. The Amsterdam Conference in 1947 was your contribution to war torn Europe." The years between the conferences in Copenhagen in 1950 and in Toronto in 1953 were marked by a closer association with the United Nations Organizations FAO, UNESCO and ECOSOC.” LIFE IN CEYLON Because it is one of the conventions of an A.C.W.W. Conference that the delegates should try to understand the country where the conâ€" ference is held, the Governor-General gave this information about Ceylon: Ceylon believes in United Nations, wants it to represent the whole world and asks for the settlement of all disputes, national or in- ternation, by friendly negotiation. Ceylon is on the side of subject peoples seeking freedom. Her economic plan is based mainly on increasâ€" ing agricultural production and the establishâ€" A delegate from Ireland in traditional Irish dress brings greetings. ment of small industries and cott tries. The Government buys all th need in the country, paying th about twice as much age indus. “109 prod. e prorle _ k er: 3‘5 Producers ,1.) neighboring countries. All rice for lorm t. m sumption is subsidized and the cost or harm index has moved only three points in llli‘\l1rn-g five years. '51:! Only five per cent of the national linrl , is spent on defence; seventeen per “mggi spent on education. Ceylon has frer‘ vi'linf} tion up to and including university L.‘ .: percentage of literacy is sixty-five;5;. tn; six per cent for men and fifty-three for r, [17,,9‘1.‘ Of the 2500 students in the University HQ: women. ' Ceylon has had adult suffrage since I l ,in out of 3,600,000 voters in Parliamentar tions 1,700,000 are women. The Min .- Health is a woman and her Ministrx and. nearly eleven per cent of the national r The country has two great mass mDUL‘l . the Coâ€"operative movement and the Rt velopment movement, serving in e‘." trict. lec- Sir Oliver reminded the assembly v' twenty-eight countries from which tlm it; her Associations come held less than 74,-. ter of the country women of the wou. and that Asia holds more than half the 1d: population. He said: “My submission ‘in Associated Country Women of the it . i; to make the movement representatii-v was whole world. Your best chance of 1‘ 1-335 in this direction is to work through i -:_[-» resentatives in United Nations and ‘ 1';- nected organizations." MRS. BERRY’S REPORT Mrs. Alice Berry, A.C.W.W. Presidw reCOmmended close co-operation with 'erl Nations and commended the organizu‘ mi their contributions to various UNESC' ects including the gift of $32,903.70 1 .9 the Lanka Mahila Samiti in their u 11. Ceylon. Mrs. Berry reported a ver: -- is- factory extension in country womr i:- ganizations over the past few years a i;- gested that this is partly due to the is +1? these organizations are concerned wiili :1- ests that country women have in com; ill over the world. “First, we are mothers and homemalv :zr'l are therefore concerned with the th- ind family life,” said Mrs. Berry. “We I‘ be of different races and speak different lax: LE: but the language of love is the 531 "11'? world over. . , . We are concerned will 011' cation, particularly the education of the, :lll- try child . . . In every country won- He trying to improve conditions of life ' Ville rural family and we find in our Ill‘JlDEI‘ societies many realistic approaches is 11115 problem: drive for water piped into 3911‘: country home; holiday homes establib: members for the use of the tired (r mother; craft classes where the oz-n'nph‘i'i'15 i 3 HOME AND CCIEJNI‘RY