THE W.A.A.C.'S.

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 242, 1 July 1918, Page 2

THE W.A.A.C.'S.

A WOMEN'S AIIMY IN FIUNCB. Almost ii year ago Hie first unit of the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps went lo Franco as nil experiment, states a writer in '"Ihe. Queen." The British Army, conservative to the marrow, as ivo have always been told, has in a twelvemonth welcomed and trained and assimilated its women helpers in tho baso camps in Northern Franco- with a thoroughness that puts to shame the attitude of the most progressive University, the most modern city office, towards the female members. And in their turn the girls and women h.avo taken on the cheerful discipline of the Army. Our real intimation of their value has come in a form that all English men and women resent, hut which is, nevertheless, a sincere tribute to their importance. Persons who desire lo hamper our military operations have found it worth while to spread rumours impugning their. moral character. It is recognised that to hinder recruitingof the women who replace men is equivalent to limiting our supply of men, and those allegations have been repeated and have sometimes been believed. H is not easy for one who hag visited every district in Franco in whicli the W.A.A.C. works to , proceed to any formal refutation of these preposterous charges; but oince they havo been made, the figures regarding discharges from the Women's Army in Franco should be given. They icaeh rather less than 1 per cent, of tho number enrolled.

No English person in France believes that tin- W.A.A.C. is other than ailmrdworking, self-respecting body of young women, "viriks sans, etre.masculine," as the French womun put it. Thu French did at iirst find the Women's. Am y hard, to understand (they have always found the manners of young men and women in England astounding), but many; are ai the opinion of the French' general inspecting a. W.A.A.C. camp, that it is "magnificent, astonishing, but not possible for (he French." It is possible, (hey see, whether on account of our virtues or our deficiencies, for the F.nglish.

It is impossible, oven, if onn gives a week to tlic enterprise iind motors neariy 500 miles from ctimp to enmp, 'to see cvpiy one of tlic pirls who ure replacing men at the hiifo camps, but one. can see thousands of "hem, neat, alert, disciplined, and (so said all the unit administrators, who hold a rank parallel to that of a captain) never needing month in, month out, lo bo told that it is time to go to work. There are miles of.ordnance .■■tori's at a seaport in i'ninee where pirls work in galleries like complicated ironlnonKers' shop?, packing and invoicing air the multitudinous objoets—fiparos for midlines, screws, nuts, doormats, etretdiKiw,, liaskets for aerial pigeons— that aro wanted by armies at tho front, and iiici'i'. i> no oosk in the tiniest cupboard of an ofiice which hafi not its little bit of wall spaced off and decorated with photographs llowers; . caricatures, souvenirs. These works aro far froiu... tH6;, girls' camps or billets, and n moss-rooin liaa been provided where they liavo their hot miiUday meal looking, down en the sen. The girls in the "Signals" section hero «ro specially expert—only seven seconds is allowed between call and cull on tho telephone exchange.;, the telegraphists aro os good in their department. Uirls who work lato 011 night shifts have a rest 11.01:1. ami lnarcirto ami fro in dutachments. If a lonely worker is lato a forewoman is seut for her, and, if necessary, an armed escort sees them past any possible dangerous part , of tho journey. Theso orduancii stores look out on gangs of labourers mending roads and hauling stores amid piles of wrecked aeroplane engines, battered German guns, rifles and body armour, ships and other things.,.tha.tla.re,. not ,\fhnt' they seem., There■ is a-great deal 'for.'.ilie girls in.', the, .biggest ordnance'.stoiys in the world to hold their tongues aboii'f." Tho girls in tho biggest'bakory in the world, further up (or down) the coast, might talk if they cared. The bread baked here is not scale when it's seven days' old, and it is liHirvellously white. The factory turns out trainloads of bread and -spoils only about 21b.' of dough in twenty-four hours; and this is baked and sold for dojj biscuits'; and it employs women bakers, who have to ,be trained on (ho spot because civilians have always said that women were' useless in machine bakeries. Theso girls, like all the W.A.A.C.'s to be seon in France, look well and happy; their work is heavy, but not more so than that; of 'ho women in cookhouses. The bakery women have their''regular hours; the cooks may have to get up at four o'clock to get the men's breakfast, but they do. not grumble. What is more surprising, neither do "Household," the W.A.A.C.'s own cooks .and housemaids,, undisguisably "household" eyfrn iirtlieir khaki, unable to give notice, unaided by the stimulus of working shoulder to shoulder with "the boys." "Household" has its consolations; if it must say "Yes, ma'am," it sees its unit administrator stand at attention before the aren controller. It knows, even if Tr does not hear,-'that tho area controller must call the base commandant "Sir." "Household" retains, after mouths of .service, an air of restrained astonishment, surprised apparently that this universal discipline is more comfortable than the "independence of the civilian kitchen." "Household" is popular with non-coms, an<l men, is not above cooking a special j>ie- for the sergeants' mess if she is given "enough beet and .flour for a pie for my officers," and she provides 6uch a tea as has not been seen for veal's in England when the AV.A.A.C. of her unit invite gpldier ■ guests to a party. "Household" makes tho W.A'.A.C. workers and administrators very comfortablo wherever they live.

They live in the most various places. In camps with long rows of wooden huts, looking over a hockey field to sand-dunes and the sea. Sleeping huts, bathrooms, ablution-rooms, cookhouses, inecsrooms, forewomen's rooms, administrators' quarters, all iu rows, spotlessly clean and airy. In billets that wore once the Hotel dc Commerce, but have not lost the smell one has hitherto associated with..French provincial inns, as characteristic as the cooking, though less to Vb_ desired. In large, handsome flats, in Kisson huts in the gardens of villas, in almost every kind of house, temporary or permanent. All have some things in common. All nre clean, all the beds have four blankets all that could have gardens have them, all the camps have plenty of hatliToouis with hot water laid ou," or to he had from contiguous boilers, and all have 'private cubicles for washing. All the dormitories arc neat, but every camp thinks its own arrangements for neatness the latest word.

The ranks of the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps in England aro almost full, the iiumliers in France ought to be almost doubled within ii few months. No country but Englt'iul has given its women so magnificent an ..opportunity for service, and no women could haro risen letter to meet the <lemand upon them'. Where so many havebad the conrago to be pioneers it should not lie hard tu h'nd many more to follow them.

- .Mrs. Bacchus nnd lira. Magill, of Scatoun, will bo in charge of the lt*d Cross .Shop, Woodward Street, on Wednesday next. "I inn convinced," said the Hon. A. F. Ilawke at a meeting in Invercargili lost week, "that the war is going to mean the gaining' of n kingdom' by the womenfolk. There, is no reason why they should not: do a great deal of the country's work, such as teaching, as well as men can do it." Hμ thought that if women took n greater part in the life of nations wars would not be so plentiful. "Except wordy war.s." he added as an iiftertholight.