WOMEN GIVE HAIRPSNS UP

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 51, 11 May 1942, Page 2

WOMEN GIVE HAIRPSNS UP

THAT BRITAIN MAY HAVE MORE BARBED WIRE FOR DEFENCE Women in Britain are going without hairpins and hairgrips so that the mild steel from which they are made can be turned into barbed wire as a defence against the invader. At present their ration if. one.(il'th of the peace-time hairpin allowance of many ml'lions a month. But hairgrips are in even shorter supply; tiie number now being produced each month is only one twentieth of the quantity used before the war. The reason is that supplies of the mild steel for hairpins, commonly known as "iron wire," are rather more plentiful than the hardened, tempered steel wire for grips. Apart from material, labour supply limits the output severely. C)ne of Britain's largest manufacturers is making hooks and eyes, snap fasteners, buckles and slides for the. uniforms of the Navy. Army, and Air Force, as well as women's services like the W.R.N.S., A.T.S. and W. A. A. F. One difficulty these manufacturers have found is that both skilled and unskilled workers are disinclined to make these accessories for civilian wear as they feel that they would rather be engaged on war work. It has to be explained to them that the very women Avorkcr* on whom so much of Britain's industrial war effort depends have to have fasteners for their dresses and grips for their hair.