REDUCING WAR WASTE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 103, 24 January 1918, Page 3

REDUCING WAR WASTE

SWEEPING THE BATTLEFIELD FRENCH WOMEN AND THE W.A.A.C; ■

"I love the French workers in my factory," one of tho miscellaneous W.A.A.C.'s told me, as we went through the textile factory attached to a great ordnance base, where she was a technical administrator. "They're so intelligent and so kindly, so quick to see what you mean, and so ready to carry it out. And they're so gay and so witty, from the little girl straight from the lycee to tho old lady who has come back to work because she wants to see the Booho punished for what he did to her beloved France in '70. They're thrifty, and could give any Englishwoman points iu putting by, and ,yet the younger ones always seem to have their hair newly waved and the old ladies are so clean and tidy."

there, seemed to be a perfect understanding between them. The old ladies told me they thought their administrator was bien olevee, and the younger ones said they like tho uniform, and with the littlo compliments" that in' France oil the wheels of life the day's work in the great hives of industry went on. The French workers had been formerly lacemakers, and a few of them fisher-girls. Of the former there weio a few who were the children or grandchildren of English people from tho great English lace centres at Nottingham, who had nettled in France many years before, and been absorbed into the lifo of the French people. In tho Balvage centres at an ordnance base I saw them working in the biggest bootrepair shop in the world, where 30,000 pairs of boots are repaired a week; and here I saw old uppers cut into discs, which in their turn were made into boot laces. These salved boots, swept up from the debris at the front, emergo finally in three classes—(a) those that can be used again by men at tho front, and are often preferred to nw, as they are softer in wear; (b) those for men

on the lines of communication; and (c) for prisoners and coloured labour. Whilo I was going round theso repairing shops I noticed an American officer being taken round also, and heard his oienrone giving him information on the importance of salvage—all of which lie

was carefully noting. There wero Frenchwomen cleaning old web and ionthcr equipment by revolving brushes; French girls sorting 6alved ammunition, the "empties" being sold w the French Government; there were girls washing discarded haversacks, Cleaning rifles, picking through masses of horse-snoes to see if thoro was any wear left iu thorn; there were girls sorting out old helmets and picking tho few onos to be washed, sand-paper-ed, and "camouflaged." All of tbeso tilings had boon swept up from the debris of the recent fighting. Yet only 30 per cent, of waste is ever salved from the fighting linos. They were repairing and riveting spurs; they were making wooden sticks for Watson's signalling fans; they wero sharpening blades of horse-clippers ; thev were repairing wheels and cleaning" the boii.s and. huba of the wheels, and doing a thousand other curious routine tfep*. Most of them sans at their work riV.d little French songs, which occasionally changed to the defiant "Marseillaise" when they saw a stranger near them. Industry means happiness in France, where all who eat must work, oven the dogs. In the textile factory there were eirls handling over five tons a day of old tents; others were repairing them upstairs at ihe rate of hundreds a week. They cut out discs for signal*line and the tabs for soldiers' greatcents; they were making up the parcels that "go in Tommy's greatcoat packet, buttons, thread, etc., each one at a great table having her share in the- process. There are French girls also helping in the clerical section of ordnance, working side by side with W.A.A.C.'s, filing papers, though they know no English", by jiumbcrs. and becoming very skilled snd quick at a monotonous The pay is that prevailing in th" town in which they, work, and arranged vith the French authorities. One of the great advantages of employing French women is, _ in addition j to their quickness and skill, the fact j that they live close at hand, thus saving tho need for importing English j pponle for unskilled work. ■ The French women's labour has one characteristic that is. recognised by the military emplover Tfc is a. little erratic. Six francs a da- is the usual pay, and if a woman does not chooso to work a consecutive number of days j ?he stay away, and no on<> _savs anythinE. They are also a mobile labour, | pnd if a group decide to move else- j where owing to air raids and otlior | causes, thfiydepart with all their poods atid chattels, /.lw.ays thev please themselves in purely personal matters while remaining on the best of terms with, their'.employers. -Of their strict honesty I heard ponstnnt'praise. _ One pay-day a number of workers, owing tn some confusion of accounts, received moro than their due. They came nt once to point out the mistake, full of fear that they had embarrassed the W.A.A.C. who was nnyiiie them. When she thanked them for pointing out the mistake their answer was that if thev had been paid too little they would bnvp come back too.

Tim officers in charge, of the different factories are appreciated as nnich br the workers as they annreciate them. One shy officer_ in charge of a fnctorv pot his captaincy the othe? dnv. • He did not think his workers Tiacl notficed it. But the morning after he found th"ni ernnprti? awaiting him, with «is bouquets, n, number of potted plants, a pMr nf bronzes, and one or two other tliiiics, .iiid tho cloypime «f +he cmira r.'ifle him •" speech, and tho others "liurralied" *n an English ti wav as tlio.v could!—fß* Mary Q. Kennedy in the Dnily Mail.")