A MATTER OF COURTESY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 88, 15 November 1939, Page 2

A MATTER OF COURTESY

SALUTING OFFICERS "For the first time in the military history of this country it would seem" remarks the Manchester Guardian of October 5, "the War Office has been constrained to admit that a salute may be a matter of courtesy and not a matter of compulsion. So far, however,, it is necessary to be a woman in order to benefit by that exceedingly reasonable concession." The reference is to a decision that although women members of the Auxiliary Territorial Reserve must salute their own officers and. "obse-ve throughout their own branch" the customs of the service in respect of the association of officers, N.C.O.'s, and men "salutes to male officers, even when they are inspecting women's units, are a courtesy that cannot be enforced." In this decision of the War Office the Guardian discerns "a sort of unexpressed bargain in the background;" for if women members of the service iiad to salute men according to their rank, it would be hard to deny that men would l\ave to salute women officers on similar terms. Therefore '-'better wash out the saluting sauce for the goose lest the gander be forced to accept an equal dose of it for himself."