A "GENERAL'S" FRANK TALK

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 111, 4 February 1919, Page 2

A "GENERAL'S" FRANK TALK

(By Jessie E. Dunbar, in the "Daily Mail.") She was a glowing bit of womanhood, I thought, as sho stood talking to me, and her well-lilting suit of- khaki showed her strong young shape to advantage. She was in the Army, and we wire talking of peace.

"What will peaco mean to, you?" I asked. x Raid Hcbe'-in-khaki (she was nothing liko Jfary Jane, her pre-war name): "I had just started in service, miss—l was a 'general'—when war broke out. 1 waited a bit, then went out to take a man's place—the place of my 'boy,' who was lost on the Homme. When peace comes I suppose we shall be demobilised."

"Are you going back to service?" "I'd like to, under peace conditions," twinkled Hebe-in-khaki. "Peaco conditions being these:, two to three hours off duty every afternoon, and every evening off after eight."

' \\ hat about, the good man's dinner, and tho city girl's?" I asked. "Well, something has to go," returned liebe-in-khaki, "and as you don't want it to be the servants, it will have (o bo a bit of tho service. Most peoplo want us back. But there is one thing certain: peoplo who keep only .one maid will never again be able to pretend to themselves that they keep two, and njuke 0110 do the work of two. They did not mean it, but that is what mistresses did before tho war. AVo have had our regular times off in the Army, and shall always want them now.

"We don't want, to be difficult, miss," sho continued; "wo will go back to service all right, and you will find the newway works out quite comfortably when you are used to it. It docs not mean doing without your dinner, mly helping to get it ready. For instance, everything could bo put ready for dinner before we went out for the evening, and the mistress or someone else in tho family could serve tho dinner. Tho dishes could be left for the next morning." "Is this a real peace talk, Hebe?" I asked.

"Would all you 'generals' come back to civil life on these terms? Would there be no strikes afterwards?"

. No, miss, said Hebe-in-khaki, "I am suro you could hove the whole army of domestics on those ter'ms. Wo want to earn a living, but we can never be like the 'generals' before the war-at everybody's beck and call all day and all night. We'll serve you better, and you will like the look of us better under 'the new conidtions."

"What if we refnso to accept your ultimatum about times off? Are we the ono-servant households to go scrvuntless all our days-seekers after 'labour-saving apparatus that will hardly ever work?" 'Tm afraid to, miss. But you tell all tho one-servant peoplo you know that wo can and will bo a real comfort to tho war-tired housewife. A girl like me can make a big difference in running a house, and a ten-hour day keeps a girl more efficient than a twenty-four-hour day." "And I'm to say you are ready, when you shed your uniform, to como'back as a 'general'—on the terms you state?" "Aye, ready and willing miss." And Uebe-iu-khaki brought off a smart salute.