' The Talking Leaf, by Miss MARGARET WRONG , Secretary to the International. Committee on Christian Literature for
Africa
EVEN IN THESE DAYS of educated and civilised native communities in Africa and elsewhere, one thinks of a ready demand among them for coloured finery, or anything else gaudy or appetising to appeal to the senses. But the last thing one imagines is a demand for serious books.
They call books ' The Talking Leaf.
They ask for fact, not fiction. Books on people or hygiene; on gardening or cooking; even on music.
Margaret Wrong , Secretary to the International Committee on Christian Literature for Africa, is just back from a tour through the country by boat, and car, and aeroplane, undertaken in connection with this work, which is to explore the needs and to stimulate a supply of books of all sorts.
She will relate this afternoon how she found an awakening and a hunger for literature in these unexpected places and in such unexpected people.
A Canadian, she was formerly Lecturci in History and Dean of Women at
Toronto University, and later a secretary in this country of the Student Christian Movement.