Office Work for Returned Soldiers.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16437, 3 February 1919, Page 6

Office Work for Returned Soldiers.

One of the numorous difficulties that it was anticipated might crop Tip as soon as hostilities ceased, has arisen. When our soldiers loft for the training camps and the front, the placos they had occupied in banks and Government and commercial offices were filled in •nnny cases by young women, whose appointments, in possibly a majority of instances were nominally only temporary, though, it wns thought that many would prove to bo permanent. For •there was for a long time a very genej ral impression that a great majority of j our troops, when they came home, j would • nevor go back to offices, but 1 would, want to go on the land. 7 hey would have become so aectisjwmcd to j lifp ■: in the open that thoy would be 1 repelled by tho mere idea of taking up | indoor work again. It was a perfectly I natural impression, arising as it did | in large measure out of the distaste

for the routine and monotony and confinement of office work that is felt by so many after a camping holiday. But it did not take sufficiently into account tho vast differonco between such a holiday and the life experienced bv

our soldiers who spent a year or two in the trendies on the Western front, amid such of discomfort, cold, wet, mud, vermin, to say nothing of tlie ever-present risk of death, as no home-stayor can imagine. It is litt'o wonder if thore are many like tho returned soldier, who, on a friend expressing surprise at his vigorous denial of any intention to go on the land, remarked that in tho last three ar.d a half years ho had enough fresh air and out-cbor work to last him for tho rest of his life; what ho wanted was to feel four walis round him and a rainproof roof overhead. There are, of course, a great many returned soldiers who came from tho farms and stations, who wish for nothing hotter than to return to country life, and with them are those former town-workers who always wanted tn <iot on to tho land if they could

J gel ! !:e c!i;uip<'. But this attitude is : j not SO universal as it was expected to he. an.] in many cases the men who are new returning to civil life are anxious to ros-umo their pre-war positions in For many of them, thoir places are waiting in accordance with tho promises made to them by their employers. These prmne.es, we imagino, will in all he honoured. Thoro remains, however, a considerable number of jobs which for s une years have been carried on by young women, who, it is assertoJ, show no disposition to relinquish in favour of returned soldiers. Tho war has, in fact, opened widely to women a field of occupation into which, before it began, they were already making thoir way in steadily increasing numbers, and in which, in the case of many individuals, thoy have shown marked aptitude, and ability equal to that of any man. Women of this calibre will always be worth, and will always find, a place in commercial life. But there are others, often tho daughters of mon fairly who have taken up office work as a means of securing more pocket-money than they could otherwise enjoy, or bocause thoir friends did. They lnvo no claim on their employers on account of tho quality of their work. If they aro cheaper than mon, it takes moro of thom to do men's work a Jvondon banker has said it takes fivt. women clerks to do tho work that three males used to do—and often their employment throws more work on tho mon in an office. For those efficient girl clerks, who must support themselves, there is a good deal to be said for their retention of thoir posts, but thoso who do not actually need the money, or for whom other avenues- of occupation of a more essentially feminine nature are availablo, should not cling to positions, their occupation of» which may prevent returned soldiers, possibly unfitted through wounds or sickness, for harder work, from earning a livelihood. Tho community has often expressed in the past its sens© of the debt it owes to thoso who fought tho battle of freedom for US all; ono.way of repaying that debt is to make certai- that suitable work is found for all returned soldiers who want it, ovon though this may mean the tomporary idleness of some of the girl clerks who have boon filling their .places.