PSYCHOLOGY OF WAR TIME

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2675, 22 January 1916, Page 11

PSYCHOLOGY OF WAR TIME

In a clear and comprehensive articlc in the "Englishwoman" on tho British Registration Act and Women, after dealing with the many important aspects of tho trained woman's work in this crisis, tho writer goes on to say: "I will stay only to point to one more phase of this very human, problem. The production of munitions, equipment, and supplies, and tlie maintenance of our export trade, are not the only present aims of statesmanship. Behind tho firing line there remains the population. That population, as its mood prevails, may help or hinder the fighting men. Wo have learned in this Avar a great deal about the importance of preserving a temper of high courago and determination in and throughout tho nation, combatant and non-combatant. Gradually we are learning how much the temper of the people at home reacts on tho temper of the men on the seas and in tho trenches. Tremulous anxiety here may sharpen the intensity of the struggle out there; but it does not hearten the men who bear the shock of war as they are heartened by a spirit of hope and confidence and resolute grit among those they protect and fight for. So much of the psychology of war time we have learned well in this our day of searching. And tho best way to preserve ourselves from anxiety is to find plenty of work to do. Idleness has no backbone. It is impossible to measure the real fighting force of the multitudinous ways in which women as well as men have voluntarily helped our sailors and soldiers. When they knit socks they do more than knit socks. They knit more closely the determination that will bring us through victorious. They knit tokens that speak to tho men of love and confidence and gratitude. The potentialities of British ' women are not bounded by the provision of 'comforts,' however necessary these 'comforts' may be. Lot those who can do naught else continue this beneficent work, doubly 'useful in timei of war. But let there be a greater widening of the opportunities for those who sternly count it the duty of women to throyir in their lot/with men in every practicable way. It was for this the Registration Act was passed." Here indeed is food for thought for tlie women of New Zealand.