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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 9, No. 11. August 21, 1946
Youth at the Helm—WFDY Secretary Reports
Youth at the Helm—WFDY Secretary Reports
Last Friday week the Stud. Ass. Exec. sponsored a lecture given in the Gym. by Mr. Bert Williams on the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) and on the World Student Congress held at Prague last November, 1945. Mr. Williams, an Australian, is one of the travelling secretaries for WFDY, and represented the Australian students at Prague. After the lecture a very impressive film was shown of the Student Congress.
As the name implies, WFDY is a federation of all youth organisations except the Fascist, and although not yet fully representative of world youth, it is most certainly so of European youth. Delegates came from almost all walks of life; the majority had considerable war service to their credit. The Spanish delegate, a girl of 18, had fought with the guerillas since she was 13; there was a woman, formerly a captain in the Yugoslav National Army; a Norwegian delegate, the editor during the occupation of an underground paper; and Penry Jones, outstanding youth leader of the British SCM, with many others. Those representing formerly occupied countries were particularly impressive and they all said that only those who have actually experienced Fascism can understand it. The composition of the Conference held in August, 1945, in London, was as follows:—
| National Youth Councils | 15% |
| Regional Youth Councils | 9% |
| Cultural and Educational Organisations | 5% |
| Students | 10% |
| Trade Unions | 6% |
| Sporting | 1.5% |
| YMCA and YWCA | 2.5% |
| Scouting | 3.5% |
| Protestant | 4.5% |
| Catholic | 3.5% |
| Services and Veterans | 4% |
| Jewish | 5% |
| Farming | 2.5% |
| Co-operative | 1% |
| Conservative | 5% |
| Liberal and Radical | 1% |
| United Progressive | 7% |
| Communist | 3.5% |
| Socialist | 2.5% |
| Unclassified | 13.5% |