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Wednesday, May 24, 1972
"You have I understand, completed virtually the same course during
your 26 days here, as the boys do, and this will have meant that you will
have had to forego many of the comforts and luxuries of everyday life. You
will also have been subjected to the discipline and rules that are necessary
when a group of people live or work together.
"Whilst I am sure you all now feel
-
and rightly eo- confident of
being capable of tackling any situation that may arise, I hope your desire
to equal, if not go one better than the men, will not make you lose any of
your feminine charm. Indeed you all look attractive and well turned-out, in
spite, I am sure, of having to miss visits to your hairdresser or manicurist
or dressmaker during the last few weeks.
"It is true, and very commendable that in recent years women have
achieved some remarkable feats of daring and endurance. For example
Nicolette Milnes-Walker sailed the Atlantic alone last year; Sylvia Cook
rowed for twelve months across the Pacific. Then there are the tremendous
successes experienced by Japanese women climbing in the Himalayas.
"Doubtless, despite the recent bad weather, with these examples, and
the experience gained from some of the tasks you have been given on this
course, your pioneering instincts will have been so encouraged that you now
feel fit in both body and spirit to climb every mountain or sail any sea.
"However, as a wife and mother, I would remind you of an old Danish
saying, that the quickest way to a man's heart is through his stomach and I
hope that you are all as efficient with your cooking pots as you are with a
coil of rope or in a boat. Then indeed your husbands and families when you
have them, will have all the luck."
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