Mrs. Keith Rand, Port Williams, N.S., is chairman of the 
     
     National Committee. Other members, all from Ontario, are: Mrs. 
     
     Jas. Haggerty, FWIC President, Napanee; Mrs. L. G. Lymburncr, 
     
     Provincial President, Port Colborne; Mrs. R. F. Futcher, St. Thomas; 
     
     Mrs. Harry Nixon, St. George; Mrs. Ewart Hunt, Paris; Mrs. John 
     
     Charlton, Paris; and Miss Helen McKercher, Director Home Econo- 
     
     mics Branch, Dept. of Agriculture, Toronto. In 1960 — the Women’s 
     
     Institute of P.E.I. were asked to give 10c per member for the 
     
    
   
   
    
     purchase of this homestead and sent $246.82 for same. 
     
     It: * * *3: it 
     
    
   
   
    
     A Brief History of the Associated 
     
     Country Women of the World 
     
    
   
   
    
     >2: 3: * 
     
    
   
   
    
     . The idea of an organization of Country Women had already 
     
     spread to European countries. A group was formed in Finland. But 
     
     Stoney Creek had quickened fresh desires and in several European 
     
     countries associations were formed. Miss Emily Guest had already 
     
     brought the Institutes to Scotland, and with the Federation of Wo- 
     
     men’s Institutes already accomplished, Mrs. Alfred Watt had visions 
     
     of a Federation of the Country Women’s Associations of the world. 
     
     When Mrs. Watt received the Medaille d’Agriculture of France in 
     
     1923 she proposed her idea to the International Commission of 
     
     Agriculture’s Congress in Paris. But great difficulties had to be 
     
     overcome, and this effort was a failure. 
     
    

    
     A few years later Mrs. Watt interested Lady Aberdeen, wife 
     
     of a former Governor General of Canada and who had founded the 
     
     National Council of Women some 30 years before. In 1929 this very 
     
     influential woman chaired the International Conference of Rural 
     
     Women’s Organizations with Mrs. Watt as one of her two vice~ 
     
     chairmen. 
     
    

    
     It was at the Vienna Conference in 1930, that the Rural Organ- 
     
     ization drew away from the National Council of Women — this body 
     
     had sponsored the first two conferences, held in Stockholm, Sweden 
     
     in 1933. The Canadian Government delegated Laura Rose Stephen 
     
     to the meeting, which was the First Conference of Countrywomen 
     
     and a great triumph for Mrs. Watt, who was elected President, with 
     
     eight international vice-presidents —— thus came into being the “As- 
     
     sociated Countrywomen of the World.” 
     
    

    
     1 1: $ * 3)! 
     
    

    
     The Associated Country Women of the World is the only world 
     
     organization of countrywomen. It represents more than six and one- 
     
     half million women in thirty some countries belonging to 140 Con~ 
     
     stituent Societies and 55 Corresponding Societies. (These figures 
     
     change frequently as new societies are admitted.) 
     
    
   
   
    
     ~125-