I. ALL INDIA WOMEN'S CONFERENCE AND POST WAR PLANS - With Mrs Naidu leading the opening procession, the Women's conference began one of its most successful meetings. Planned to last three days, it went over to a fourth. Lady Thackersey was there, and the Maharani of Gwalior, and they had an enormous agenda to get through. The very few men present, must have been relieved when Mrs Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit told them the objects of the conference, not to fight men, not to imitate them, but as the new president Kamla Devi said "to make women conscious of their part in the nation's life. For instance, in education", and the conference heartily backed the Sargent plan for post war schooling.
II. SOCIAL SCIENCE - Famous in the world of philosophy Sir S Radhakrishnan goes to talk to students who hope to be famous in the grim world of everyday students of social science in convocation. Sir Sohrab Saklatwala is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, but in this training centre, every student considers himself a trustee of the well being and happiness of his fellow men. Anything our famous philosopher says is worth making note of, and so are some of these young people Miss Bannerjee, brilliant student of Bombay's social problem, and then the winner of the Vincent Massey Scholarship, he's going to study in America, and finally Miss Leila Kuharni, who showed that social service isn't just a study subject for them; she went from door to door collecting a record sum for the Bengal Relief Fund.
III. IRANIAN INTEREST IN INDIAN CULTURE - for a long time before this war Iran was a closed country, but we've always known and admired her culture, so the new mission to India, make up of top ranking professors, is made very welcome. All these visitors, are expects in history, so to make a break for them we showed them Delhi's very contemporary Broadcasting House. After the controller of Broadcasting has described how they amplify what goes through the air, the Mission went on to the Agricultural Institute to see how we try to amplify what grows up through the ground. It certainly seems a comprehensive sort of tour, but then His Excellency Ali Asghar Hikmat, whom you see here shaking hands, has had a comprehensive career. He has been successively Minister for Education, Industry, Justice, and Health filling in his spare time with a translation of Shakespeare. Another member of the mission Professor Doud has been here before, researching for his history of the Parsees. But even if Bombay was familiar to him the royal Institute of Science in that city had prepared a few exhibits to surprise him, including this one, showing how leaves make starch. Hyderabad showed them something with which they felt thoroughly at home, a historic fort. Then the distinguished historians were shown something that has made a good deal of history, much too much of it. Anyway judging by its size this one did its fair share.
IV. THE WAR IN BURMA - Going up to crack a Jap held objective in the Arakan, tanks roar to the advance along the only available road. Messages must be carried across country by motor cyclists, which the steady flood of armoured vehicles tears up what little road there is. A bad road, but now one of the most famous in the world. The action is not planned to be fought on the road alone. The hills on either side swarm with troops, jungle-hidden, troops that must be supplied by the only form of transport that can make the grade - pack-mules. Dominating the road, the Japs in Hill thirteen hundred and one get a plastering. While below the tanks get busy on the road. Invisible fire from an invisible enemy takes its toll, and stretcher parties begin their endless journeys of mercy. Villages are rare, but thereby become the centre of bitter fighting, and centuries old buildings crumble under non-stop bombardment. Bridges, vital objectives in jungle fighting are rapidly repaired, and Sign Corps men restore contact with base headquarters. Local children help in restoring what was their home, what will be their home again. Meantime, fighting men relax, in sun warmed water - a moment of sheet luxury. It's about the only luxury they have. Cook's primitive, and the menu's simple. But any food tastes good after a day of some of the toughest fighting in the whole of the war.
