WOMEN & MUNITIONS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2547, 23 August 1915, Page 3

WOMEN & MUNITIONS

It is . a strange thing on Sunday morning to lioar tho coi.iiningled' ringing of the church bells, and tho clash and clang of hammers in the factories, and the drill sergeants shouting commands (writes "Alien" in the "Otago Witness"). There will be no Sabbath rest again' for England till the fsr-off, long-ed-for days of' peace. The output of shells is the first great duty. If we have no shells soon we shall have no country. The new understanding of this has brought forth a new and noble spirit. The workers have responded faithfully to the great, dercands made upon them by the stirring appeals of the Press arid Mr. Lloyd George. The right to strike has been all but abandoned by the unions. Lock-outs are to become illegal, and the profits of employers regulated'. To see the women and gills', making shells in tie North and ether parts of England is described as a; lesson to all slackers. A wellknowii Lancashire writer (James Sherliker) says:—

"By the courtesy of the management I was permitted to see the women and girls of Leeds making the war material for the men at the 'front. They, work day and night on turns, and they work on Sundays as well. There is a keon competition in the matter of output. The winners hold l a challenge shield, which is decorated' with the flags of the Allies and hung in a prominent position over the machines at which sit-, the successful girls. If a girl is taken ill or feel's faint she is at once helped to a cosy rest room, where a charming ■matron and a trained nurse wait upon her. Up and down the big yard tramp armed sentries in khaki, and a Boy Scout con-: ducts the visitor to the official whom ho wishes to see. "All sorts and conditions of women come, here. It is difficult to-day in Leeds and the surrounding districts to get a servant, because domestic servants are giving up their work to go and make bullets. Girls of good middle-class families are-here. Soldiers' wives, are here, and soldiers' mothers; and it is fine to see the smiles of satisfaction when thoy increase the output. Ladies ill all parts of the country write asking to he allowed to help in the work. A clergymail's wife has offered to Come along and bring her daughters, and applications come from places as far distant as the Channel Islands. ...

"If you can find a man under 80 out of work round about here you will have done more than I can do. The war was not very old l when the workhouses were appealed-to, and now hundreds of men who were paupers are helping to serve the guns. Hundreds of men who left their work years ago have returned to it: Turners and fitters who believed that their working days were gone seem' to have found a new. lease of life and energy. The habitual loafer, the street corner man, the cab tout, the opener of taxi-cab doors —th'ey are all . missing from their customary haunts. You will find them where, they ought to be. They are too old! to join, tho colours, but they are young enough to make things that matter most to-day." ■ Nor is the working, not even the rough working, all confined to what is understood as the working classes. Lord Norhury, too eld to serve in the army, is working from 6 in the morning till half-past 7 in the evening in an aircraft factory for 7d. an hour. '