ROYAL WOMEN
			Following on my article on women in the November Newsletter I began to think of the influence certain royal ladies have had. Take Victoria - the growth of the British Empire during the long years of her reign was not due to her yet she had an enormous influence on the world - possibly as much as anything through the alliances formed by her children. We do not hear so much of the influence of Queen Mary but she was a strong minded and intelligent woman yet she remained subservient to her husband because she believed in the position of the King. When Princess of Wales in 1906 she attended at the Queens Hall the Sweated Industries Exhibition.  Some of the organisers were far from enthusiastic about the visit - though they saw the publicity use of it. Many of the organisers were to become prominent in the Labour and Socialist Movements one of them was Mary MacArthur who had come to London with one purpose to free women workers from the bondage system of working and organise them into Trade Unions. The Princess's interested and highly intelligent questions impressed those who had scoffed at her presence and during the first World War most of the women involved in staging the exhibition became members of the Central Committee of the Queen's Work for Women Fund and the secretary of that fund was Mary MacArthur who had had no time for royalty. The Queen was a very intelligent woman - interested in everything the women of the country were doing- certainly had she lived in a later decade more might have been heard of the care for women she always showed. In the Second World War we all know of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother's desire to do all she could for the whole country but always at the top of the list the women and children.  Many people decry Royal Families but in time of war they often become the focus of the country's loyalty - Wilhelmina of Holland is one example. She practically had to be forced to leave Holland for the comparative safety of England.  In the First World War Belgium's King Albert and his wife Queen Elizabeth stayed on 20 square miles of Belgian soil with their troops and the Queen who was a qualified doctor worked tirelessly among the sick and wounded. At the end of the war on their return to Brussels they were feted. Elizabeth worked always in medical matters such as the tuberculosis crusade and she founded 'Concourse Reine Elizabeth an international competition for composers and performers who might not have had the opportunity of bringing their works and performances to the notice of the public. She was one of the last royal patrons of the arts in Europe. Princess Georgine of Liechtenstein was always involved in welfare work for women and children and at the end of the war her sympathy for the refugees led her to found the Liechtenstein Red Cross. There are many other instances of royal ladies making their mark but to finish remember the impact carried by Princess Diana as Princess of Wales in bringing the plight of Aids victims - drug takers - and those injured by land mines to the attention of the world.