WOMAN'S WORLD

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2549, 25 August 1915, Page 3

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Continued from Page 2) WOMEN AND MUNITIONS WAR SERVICE AND BUSINESS. About a fortnight ago the Women's Social and Political Union, after having held weekly meetings in London for some considerable time, to draw attention to tho waste of material going on as long as women's services as munition workers are as little utilised as at present; decided to organise a monster procession of women willing to come forward if- til© Government will let them ([writes a- London correspondent on July , Not less than ninety bands accompanied the procession, when it was finally organised, and altogether it proved an object lesson not to be readily forgotten. . . When the Ministry of Munitions in Whitehall was reached, Mrs. Pankhurst, the organiser of the demonstration, and' a small deputation was admitted. The soon put and 'Mr. Lloyd George replied. _ He did not think an effcctively-organ-. ised nation for a war such as that which they had. embarked upon, he said, was possible until they had organised the women of this country as well as tho men. Our Allies and our foes on the Continent-;had already recognised that. It. was hot merely the question of muni-tions.-It was a question of utilising the energies of women for the purpose of discharging -the duties and functions of commercial and industrial life, which they were capable of doing as well as men.,-. ~s . There' were'at the present moment at the outside something like. 50,000 women working at, various factories turning out munitions of. war. That, he believed, was something like between one-fifth and one-tenth of the number employed in France. He had, been told by someone who knew pretty well what was done in organising labour in Germany, that they had something like half a- million women engaged in turning out munitions of war in that country. '- Figures which he had before him, and thei kind of work women were doing so well, indicated what a reserve we had got in women labour for the purpose of ''.helping the nation, through this very gi;eat.crisis. They ought not to be confined to work which was unskilled. There ' was very fine work which could be done by women, and which was being done by women in this country as well as on the 1 Continent,' in making fusesj for instance, which was about the. finest piece of work in the making of a shell. ■ THE WAGE QUESTION. - With; regard .to wages, Mr. Lloyd George said: "As far as piecework is concerned, we are agreed that women should be paid exactly tho same price as men for any piece of work turned out. 'It would not be fair to give 2s. 6d. to men doing that and only give Is. 6d. to women. We have agreed to pay exactly the same rato'of wages for piecework as to men. "Munition factories are now going to be under Government control. It is impossible for us to get along without it. The Government will see that there is no sweated, labour. For some time women will be unskilled, and untrained, and they cannot turn out quite as much work as-men who have been at it for some time. Therefore.we cannot give the same time rate of wages. • '" "We fully recognise that women aro prepared to offer .their services to the nation, and are willing: to do their-best to assist it in a very grave and serious emergency. Mrs. Pankhurst has; said thafc'i women' have got those of .'whom they 1 are.fond fighting in 1 tho trenches, and hi danger of their lives, and women are -unhappy because they are not doing something to help them. ; "They are anxious. They can help. The women of this country can help, and help enormously. I beliete they can help us through to victory. • Without, them victory will tarry, and; -victory which tarries means victory whose footprints are footprints of blood." , Tables were set at intervals all along the lengthy route at which women willing to help could sign their names, and, though each '-was . provided with five hundred forms, and there were.-great numbers,'several had t*j make -applica^ 1 tioii for moid to cope "with, fho tusli or women wlio .were eager U 1 give their services,,.. •. .

An interesting lecture is announced for to-night's meeting .of' the -Wellington Philosojihical Society. Mr. F. W. Christian, tlie well-known traveller, after an absence of many years, is to address the society on "Indonesia to Hawaiki and the Land of Hiva," or "Stepping- Stones in the. Great Maori Migration. Mr. Christian has a wealth of new informawon to impart, and proposes to illustrate his lecture by a large number of lantern slides. The Caroline Islands, Samoa, and many islands in Eastern Polynesia'will be visited, and many...important questions Taisea.