WOMAN'S WORLD

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2700, 21 February 1916, Page 3

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Continued from Page 2.)

"YEOWOMEN"

A TRIUMPH OF HOSPITAL ORGANISATION

(B> ' in\ Thomas, the "Daily Mails" Special Correspondent iu I 1 ranee.)

A complete unit, with sixteen to twenty motor ambulances, organised, worked, and driven by women, lias recently been added to the British Army, ihe women will drive their own cars and took alter them iu every sort of way. Une single male mechainp, and that is ail, ib to be attached to the wholo unit, these ambulances may, of course, at any moment be .summoned from their base in I'rancc to hurry over any type or winter-worn road to the neighbourhood ot the firing-line. What strength and endurance and pluck such work demands from women can easily be understood by anyone who has ever tried to swing a car ill cold weather or repair it by tlie roadside oven in summer. Perhaps the work is too hard lor women. I would certainly plead for another mechanic to start tho cold' and reluctant cars, but what 1 am concerned with now is the very notable tact that for- the first time under official recognition women may be called to share 111 what may be called a male depal tment of "warfare. 'Ihe Yeomanry Aursing Association, who have just extracted this recognition from tho War Office, deserve every complimcut that' can be paid them; and the success is worth some emphasis as one of a series of victories for women workers and organisations, at tho top of which is, of course, the Voluntary Aid Detachment. . The actual work of tho yeoman nurses in I'ranee and Belgium has been in progress since war was declared'. The personal history is in itself l'ull of interest. The captain of the now ambulance <mit, after failing to get any official sanction in England, went out to Antwerp, in September, and was starting a large hospital for Belgians there when tho German shells began to fall in tiio town. She then went to Ghent, and, being interested in several cases, refused to leave when the Germans entered. They told her she must bo sent to Germany, and a flood of idiomatic English to this effect met her, when, with characteristic directness, she approached the German general and' his staff. "I shall not go to Germany," she said, and presently, in front of the German headquarters, she got into a car, and,''after bluffing sentries, made her way to Holland and so Home.

Exactly a week later' she reached Calais with an ambulance car. Presently a hospital for Belgians was established there, and with a number of yeoman colleagues—all clad in tho business-like khaki uniform that has now been recognised by the War Office—this invincible British woman has done a year's yeoman service for sick and wounded Belgians. The nurses drove their cars to the front so long as they were permitted, 'fliey even designed and took out to tho Belgian lines field kitchens and a huge Daimler batli ambulance, which provided Belgian soldiers at the trcnchcs with hot baths at will.

But apart from any freakish or spectacular achievement, these women have ror a year aiul more run a consjderablc hospital and its ambulances entirely by themselves. They have fed. themselves at their own expense; and by doing their : o«'n household work, by' being their own orderlies, as well as sisters and nurses, by driving and cleaning their own ours, they have made such a success on the economical side of the work that the money laboriously collected in England has all been spent on the direct service of the wounded, not on establishment charges. Most of this has been done in the face of every kind of discouragement. The yeoman nurses —whose khaki uniform on more than one occasion in Ghent made German sentries jump with momentary terror—were, up till the present triumphant date, in some sort pariahs. This/feat of the "yeowomen"—who have struggled against a certain amount of. ridicule in England since they started a horse ambulance some six years ago— is worth emphasis because it is only one instance, striking but by no means unique, of the complete, triumph of womeii workers during the last few months. The great victory was really won by the Voluntary Aid Detachment early in the autumn. The V.A.D. — initials which have becomo a household word—are now busy in every sort of line of activity ui France as well as in lingland. The first detachment that I know in France wore graciously permitted as a favour to occupy a truck or two at a station terminus where "they polished lip the handlos so carefullee" that even

station managers began to recognise their worth. They fitted up tho trucks with their own neat and ingenious carpentry. Outside they kept a Vestal lire always burning and always boiling hot water. How many wounded men they have supplied with cheering cups and other solace I forget; but it amounts to many thousands. Many well-known women lent their hand, among them Miss Lloyd George, to this modest work. '

What was already a great organisation consented to do anything it was allowed to do, however, small. Tho eventual triumph was always certain, but oflicial authority was slow and apparently reluctant. Happily, this autumn ail barriers gave way, and to-day the V.A.D. are everywhere, and are probably the most potent and persistent agent we have in the. campaign of practical working economy. They are doing what is after all their proper work in the hospitals; and doing it very well under and along with nurses and sisters of longer training and experience. But the theory of the V.A.D. nurse which seems to be growing into favour is that she should be a "'itnndy man —handy afoot, handy ashore," a chemist, a chauffeur, a nurse, a carpenter, a cook. As an example, one little group is doing all the housework in the hotel which is the headquarters .of the Bed Cross.