The Rotary Balita no. 731 (October 8, 1953).

When I left Manila on February 16, 1953 with the Paris Convention as my goal, I took with me my copy of the 1952-53 Rotary Directory. It proved very handy as it indicated the time and place of meeting of all Rotary Clubs in the vicinity, wherever I might be. Much of the time during the nearly seven months that I was away I spent traveling on boats, but when not on a boat I made up my attendance, I visited large clubs and small clubs. I was the guest speaker at a number of the smaller clubs. Except when I was the speaker, I enjoyed the programs at all of the meetings that I attended. I visited the Berkeley Club and the Secretary said, "You are the second visitor from Manila here today." I looked around and there was K. C. Wu. I later met KC, his wife and son in a train, en-route to San Francisco from Berkeley. I visited the New York Rotary Club and there I found Gov. Ben Legarda and two Rotarians from the Bacolod Club. One is impressed by changes that have taken place since their last visit. I remember the time, years ago, when there was no flag ceremony at the beginning of a meeting. Now I saw them every place I went. Since my last visit to Rotary Clubs in the United States, I find that another ceremony has been added and that is to ask a member representing Religion to ask an invocation, after the flag ceremony. In every Club that I attended, except New York, the visitor who came the greatest distance was singled out for a special introduction and in some Clubs a gift was presented to that member. In two of the Clubs visited there was a raffle for the purpose of increasing the Charity Fund. I found a better fellowship in the smaller Clubs, and the larger Clubs, realizing that this is true, are trying to decrease their size by dividing their territory and encouraging their members to transfer to the new Clubs where their place of business will allow them to do so. Transfer of members from the parent Club to a new Club provides the new Club with a few veteran Rotarians who keep the new Club from running wild and increases their opportunity to serve Rotary and to become officers. Transfers of this sort reduce the number of members in the big Club and provide a better opportunity for those who remain to serve. Experience has shown that medium-sized Clubs make more effective use of their membership. We spent many days on the luxury cruise ship NIEUW AMSTERDAM and a weekly Rotary meeting was held in one of the ship's two theaters. There were a number of prominent Rotarians on this cruise, Past President Percy Hodgson, Gov. Goodfellow and a number of Past Governors and Past Presidents and we never lacked an interesting speaker. At each port where there was a Rotary Club we were met by a delegation from the local Club and their facilities made available to us. In Rotterdam our visit coincided with the meeting date and a ladies day was held in our honor and, although it is not the language of the Club, all business and speeches were in English, and good English at that, so that the visitors would not be embarrassed. In the smaller Clubs, the visitor gets to meet the local Rotarian, in the larger Clubs, the visitors are seated at a "Visitors Table" and he meets with other visitors which is not so good. I visited a number of countries and everywhere I found Rotarians ready to go out of their way to accommodate a visiting Rotarian. "What is fellowship? Have you ever considered the difference between friendship and fellowship? If we are friends and have not seen each other for a long time; if I cannot share with you my joys and my sorrows; if we cannot sit down together so that I could unburden my troubles to you, consult you about my life problems and ask for your advice, there is no fellowship between us. But if, on the other hand, we frequently meet and break bread together and help each other carn. mostly and unqualifiedly, then, we can say that there is fellowship between you and me." (From an address by Past Governor "Emy" Javier)