[2][3] She was educated at Rangi Ruru Girls' School in Christchurch, and studied at Canterbury University College, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1942.

[4] On 17 May 1941 she married Ian Halliday Webster at St Ninian's Presbyterian Church, Riccarton,[5] but he died in 1943 from a sting to the neck that became infected.

[1][6][7] Salas was active in the peace movement throughout her life, and advocated for improvements in the status, safety and security of women.

In 1982 she represented New Zealand at the United Nations session on disarmament and at the Women of the World Working for Peace conference in New York.

[8] She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for services to the community, six years later in the 1988 Queen's Birthday Honours.