WHAT BRITISH WIVES ARE ASKING

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2762, 4 May 1916, Page 3

WHAT BRITISH WIVES ARE ASKING

— . • IFTHLIR HUSBANDS ARE CALL!® UP

(By a Married Man, in tlio "Daily ' Mail.") Tl'his article throws some light on the proposals of tlio British Oovemwent, disclosed at the Kecrct Krssion, regarding iinaucial assistance to married and single men.]

Hundreds of thousands of married men of the business and professional classes are nightly sitting with their worried wives at the home fireside debating problems that they cannot straighten out. These are a few of tho questions that tlio wives put to their husbands: • "AVhen you aro called up—at a few weeks' notice—how am I going to livo and educate tho children on a twelfth of our present iiicomoP" "AVhen you aro called up—at ft few ■weeks' notice—jvill tho landlord release you from the uiior.pi red tenancy of this house, whose rent is more than the separation allowanco 1 shall receive from the Government?" "When you are called up —at a few Weeks' notice—will the schools at which the children now are allow us to remove them without a term's fees in lieu of tho usual term's notice?" "AVhen j-ou are called up—at a few weeks' notice—and wliilo you are settling up all your business and private alfairs, shall wo have time for that long business of house-hunting? Will you bo able to find me a little house or small furnished apartments when thousands and thousands of other husbands will be competing for little houses or small, apartments for their wives? Will tho landlords of little houses and small furnished apartments be content, in their harvest timo of .all that competition. with normal rents?"

"When you are called up—at a few weeks' notice—after you have obtained a little home for me and the children, you will liavo to obtain estimates and make arrangements for the removal of tho furniture. Thousands of other people will want to estimates and remove their furnituro within those few weeks. Will the removal contractors be 1 able to get out the estimates and Bupply the men, vans, and horsesP" "It is obviously impossible to cram all our furniture, or even half of it, in the little huuse or ouite of rooms tnat will be all I can afford on my separation allowance. We shall liavo to warehouse'_ most of , it. Fur, nituro depositories are limited in numbers and accommodation; they were dovised for avorago storago of normal times. Where can we store our furniture? It has been suggested that the Government should, erect large sheds for the storago at a nominal rent of the furnituro of married men whoso homes are broken up when they are callod. But furniture depositories have to be built oven moro souudly than ordinary houses. They have to bo bettor protected against fire, damp, sun, heat, and moth. Unless furniture is not only removed by skilled hands —who are now very limited—but warehoused .in'proper warehouses, it quickly deteriorates, and is ruined. \Vliat are wo going to do, within your two or three weeks, about the furniture P

"We certainly might sell the furniture. You will have to start your career again when you come back from the war, and at the best we shall only bd able to afford a little home. 13ut shall wo have time to advertise an auction sale and dispose of the fumituro before you go? At what sort of sacrifice shall wo have to sell it? Will there bo any buyers for it when nobody is spending money, aud when the market is being flooded by other married men also trying to sell up their homes?" * t . # • At this stage of tho anxious wifo's questions tho worried husband, who has voluntarily stood forth for his country in its stress, generally wipes tho beads of thought from his brow and says. "Oh, let's go to bed —perhaps wo shall be able to think 1 out some solution to-morrow."

Should lie, however, continue t.lia troubled debate liis wifo has yet further questions. He has an insurance policy; the premiums on it amount to the whole of her separation allowance I How is she going to pay tlicni? Or hitherto ho has. not had an iusuranco policy, trusting ( when the children's education is finished, to bo able then to save something. Does lie now propose to take tlio risk of tho soldier'* lifo and loavu his wife uuprovided. for should ho not return? What'premium will ho have to pay in view of that risk, and how, still loss, will his wifo be able to pa.v it? About tho time ho expects bis la to group to be called up ho ivill.receivo tho demand for a half-year's rates, partly in advance, of his present home. Will tlioy bo cxactodP Ho has a tele, phono, rented to him by the country whose soldier he will become. Its nil tiual installation fee, payable ill n(U vance, is duo shortly beforo lie will no : longer need it. Will tho chargo be exacted ? His income tax will be levied fully on his income up to tho moment lio joins. Will that bo exacted? lio has servants or othdr employees; ho will only get perhaps two weeks' notice be. fore he must break up his homo. Will lie have, as usual, to pay tlieni a month's wages in lieu of not'icnP And what about his season ticket? Will thn railway company that, is , now under control of his now employer, the Government, allow him a rebatementl'or its unexpired term ? There is still another question, and it is not a light one, that tho wives nro putting to the married men who aro in the late groups, or wlio know in their own hearts that doctors, humanly interested in half-drowns, have passed them without proper examination. Tlio question is gnawing at the men as well as at their wives. Is is this:

"Supposing—after you are called up and liavo surrendered your Imsiross or professional position, and wo liavo persuaded the landlord to reloaso us from our agreement, and have broken up tho home and warehoused tho furnituro and paid for tho removal, aixl discharged the servant or servants, and taken tho children from their schools, and you have said good-b.vo to me, and T liavo removed to my little temporary homo or apartments—you aro rejected' at your final, and more stringent medical examination, and sent away, either rejected or placed on the reserve list until culled upon for sedentary or lion-eoni-bat-nnt service, what, will yon do? Yniirs is n salaried position, your substitute has already been engaged and I'll.'- taken your place. How aro you going to maintain me and tho children?" The married men nf the Inter groups, ivho have offered their lives for their country and sacrificed in any en so positions that have the h".'it pari of a man's working life to lniihl, ought to have some of these problems and worries cleared up- for tlmin. Some nf them "re insoluble. Othen cr.y for fair dnitlii 1 ::.