BRITISH WOMEN IN WARTIME

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 68, 14 December 1918, Page 9

BRITISH WOMEN IN WARTIME

A MAGNIFICENT RECORD OF EFFORT

WORK OF THE W.A.A.C'S

(By a Member of the New Zealand Press Delegation which recently visited England.) ■Nothing impressed us more during our tour than the spirit of the women of Great Britain. It wns wonderful. ]n New Zealand, the war effort of women 13 necessarily confined chiefly to knitting and 6ewing for the absent soldier boys, to.the preparation and dispatch of parcels of comforts, to the- collection of funds, and to the filling of tho places in clerical employment vacated by men who are called up on active service. The women of the United Kingdom do all these things and many others besides. There is scaroely a department of manual labour in which they are not nctivelv engaged in order to relievo men for the front. They are under shell fire in the. war zone in thousands, not only as nurses, but also as army workers. And in this connection alone they have suffered much in casualties and deaths. They are at work in the fields, as agricultural labourers, in the shipyards side by side with mechanics who are scarcely moro skilled than they, while the factories that are- turning out the shells and other classes of munitions in millions aro staffed very largely by untiring women workers. Wo saw these things end marvelled. We also marvelled when we saw .women working, as lumpers in the discharge of ships, saw them busily engaged as railway porters, and admired them with admirable ekill noting as chauffeurs and tram drivers, and again, in the late hours of the night, hanging on to the tail end of a motor bus and patiently and indefatigably discharging the trying duties of conductors. Britain in her hour of trial would have been in much sorer straits if it had not been for the achievements of her glorious womanhood. '

Looking After New Zealanders, • . The women •of New Zealand cannot sufficiently know and perhaps will never realise what they owe. to the women of Britain for the care and attention bestowed on our soldier sons so far away from home. We have been in hostels and huts and canteens where the workers were leisured British women, who were giving their time ungrudgingly and doing mental work cheerfully in the service of New Zealand boys. "They are such nice; boys, and so. brave, and we feel that we cannot do enough for them." The speaker was a charming lady in a New Zealand hut, who had just prepared a tea tray for a party of five young New Zealanders, and who was laying out the table for them as if they were honoured guests in her home. . That woman had received news only a day or two previously that her" only son had been lriiled at the front. She was not uselessly nursing her grief in secret. She realised that there were mothers in distant. New Zealand whose hearts were throbbing with concern for their dear ones abroad, her own troubles had quickened her sympathy for them, and she was doing what she could to mother .theso boys of ours and make their days awav fro.m the battlefield more happy. The episode we relate is typical o! many we saw. Wo were at Lady lan Hamilton's London residence on a certain memorable Thursday afternoon, and found it filled with merryfaced young Australian soldiers, who were being entertained at afternoon tea while charming young ladies attended upon them in the capacity of honorary but certainly delightful waitresses. On the following Thursday, we were told, the .guests .would be New Zealanders, and this was happening froni week to week. It was. happening also in many other homes throughout London. It was happening all the time at Edinburgh, which is a very popular place with Sew Zeaianders on leave. It will please the mothers and sisters of. New Zealand to' know, find this is an indisputable fact, that the New Zealand soldier abroad has maintained an unesceptionally high reputation for behaviour. This cannot be too widely known and appreciated. "You can always ask a New Zealand soldier to your home and bo assured that he will behave himself as a gentleman," said a lady to the writer in England, and we heard the same sort of thing again and again. The English nurses who have had our wounded under their care speak most enthusiastically of them, and if a fair number of our boys have chosen wives in England, this must not be set down to the superior attractions of the English. Scotch, or-',lrish girl, but to the winning ways and fino behaviour of our soldier boys amongst strangers. The personal qualities of our boys have won a high name for them and this country throughout Great Britain, and one lady expressed her appreciation of them in terms that would appeal most to the pride of New Zealanders when she said: "I would like to see- and know something more of the mothers who have trained and sent out such fine sons." Think of this, mothers of New Zealand,' in your time of trial and sacrifice, and he proud of your boys.

Women in Factories. The greater part of women's war achievement, so far as the Mother Country is concerned, certainly' lies in the

factories. In the darker days of the war, when Lloyd George was appealing to tho workers to accelerate the stream of munitions, it was the women who reresponded most spontaneously and un.'■riidifinßlv, ami who put in the longest hours ot labour in response to that call. It is the women who, for tho moat part, havo douo their share without strike for higher, pay ami shorter hours. We have seen those women nt work, and wo shall never cease to admire them, becauso thej r constitute a treat and moat sterling, part of the soul of the nation. During our visit to Glasgow, we visited n great shell factory,' where there were 2500 women employed. We lunched'in the nienV diningro'om, and when lunch had concluded we received an invitation to visit the girt, in. their, dining quarters. We shall never forget that experience. . Seated on. a small platform, and surrounded by a couple of thousand bright-eyed, merry-faced, sonsy Scottish lassies, we were called on for speeches that were listened to with close attention and the keenest interest. One of tho speakers suggested that the girls should conie to the colonies after the war and husbands would be found for them. They laughed merrily. Then their manager, in a telling little address, touched their hearts with the statement: "There_ is something better than that, girls- Keep the shells going till .your own boys come back victorious and marry them." How those fine girls cheered. The rcof fairly trembled And when tho speeches had ended they gave us three hearty British cheers, probably the enly hearty ones we heard in Britain, and we began to realise something of the spirit of Scotland that sent one many of every seven of her population to the war—the record of a race of soldiers and heroes. We walked through those vast works, and watched tint army of pretty wholesome young women producing their piles of shells and we felt that Britain : had reason to be proud of her womanhood.

The W.A.A.C.'s. Apart from the Red Cross and the ordinary hospital nurses, there are several thoroughly organised women's branches of the service, such as the VA.D.'s (Voluntary Aid Department), the W.R.N.'s (Women Naval Workers), and the W.A.A.C.'s. This is a very fine organisation indeed that has passed nearly 50,000 women through its hands and had nearly that number still in service in August. At that time, there was room and work for an additional 30,000, but recruits were becoming difficult to obtain owing to tho great call upon female effort. Many of the trained W.A.A.C.'s are serving behind the lines with the soldiers in Prance and are doing most excellent .work. We were privileged to visit the training camp, Which is run on strict military lines, with women officers who hold rank equal to the various prad<!3 in the army, the 'highest.'in this 'camp king equivalent to that of a colonel. The girls are trained as cooks, waitresses, pantrymaids, clerks, etc., the pay being ,£26 a year for household workers and from , 28s.- C<l. a week to 425. Gd. for typists. Thus it will be seen that girls tvuo enlist make eome pecuniary sacrifice, as the pay for most war workers- is considerably higher. They wear a serviceable military uniform with breeches, are regularly and thoroughly drilled in companies, and salute their officers with military precision, though they do not salute nor are they saluted by the male officers. They wear badges of rank, but instead of the customary stripes or stars, their rank is indicated by roses. We were entertained at lunch by the stall', who were capital hostesses, the presiding officer being a bright and charming young girl who holds a rank equal to that of colonel. This was only one- of many directions in which the women of Great Britain are not only relieving men 'for the front, but are providing the sinews of war, and in their case of tire W.A.A.C.'s are actively assisting them, behind the lines, indifterent to the danger.? from shell fire to which they are frequently exposed. The spirit of the women of Britain is magnificent, whether in Wie sphere of war achievement or in the. exemplary patience and self-denial displayed under the privations indispensable to severe food restrictions, and is a spirit worthy of the highest traditions of the race"that cannot be shaken or broken.