President Mrs Jolly, lighting the international candle, watched by Mrs Heys, Mrs Spink, Mrs Holt and Miss Bradley.

About 300,000 women, all members of Business and Professional Women's Clubs, unite at this time of the year when clubs hold candle ceremonies throughout the world on International Night. Burnley club held the ceremony last week at the Talbot Hotel, and welcomed guests from other clubs in the North West. They included presidents of Nelson and Colne Club, Blackburn and Todmorden.

The Burnley president, Mrs Mary Jolly, opened the meeting, and asked immediate past president Mrs Vera Heys to conduct the ceremony. Mrs Heys is an international representative. She gave a brief history of the origin of the ceremony, and the clubs in the United States, before introducing two fairly new members, Mrs S. J. Holt and Mrs E. Spink, to light candles, as she read out the names of the countries in the federation, represented by white candles, and the associated clubs, represented by blue candles. Mrs Jolly lit the international and federation candles; Mrs Heys lit the candle to the United Kingdom; Miss Angela Bradley, aged 17, and daughter of a member, lit the candle to the future, which was set in a circle of flowers. It was Burnley's 28th ceremony, though the organisation has been going for nearly half a century.

After the ceremony, Mrs Jolly welcomed Mrs Mabel Farrer, of Padiham, who spoke about a month-long holiday in Hong Kong, before showing an extensive collection of coloured slides taken when she and her late husband, Jim, visited their son, Michael, stationed in Hong Kong in the RAF.

The theme of the evening is always an international one. Mrs A. Bradley thanked Mrs Farrer, and presented her with a spray of flowers.