A deputation of international women's organisations waited, last week, upon the Aga Khan as president of the eighteenth Assembly of the League of Nations. The speakers included Miss Christine Spender, representative of St. Joan's Alliance.
"I should like," Miss Spender said, " to draw attention to the position of the women of primitive communities. In many parts of the world it is deplorable. The woman is bought, sold and inherited, regarded more as property than a human person. She is betrothed as an infant, her consent is not asked in marriage.
" Custom" Upheld " Bound by the bride-price, a Christian widow may find it impossible to avoid being the second or third wife of a polygamous heir : a young girl betrothed for money in early childhood may be forced to marry an old man with many wives. If the woman dare to protest, these things are unheld in native courts
" The introduction of currency, the break away from tribal life caused by contact with other civilisations have aggravated abuses and evils, and a great responsibility rests on administrations who should treat these women as human persons on an equality with men, and should do all in their power to encourage their men folk to do likewise."