WOMEN TERRITORIALS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 136, 6 December 1938, Page 13

WOMEN TERRITORIALS

CHARGES OF. SNOBBERY

WELL-TO-DO OFFICERS

NEW SOCIAL "GAME"

(By Air Mail, from "The Post's" London Representative.) LONDON, October 31. Chief topics of conversation for the man in the street since the crisis have been the revelations of Britain's low j standard jf anti-aircraft defence, gaps in the air raid precautions scheme, and sand bag and other forms of profiteer-j ing. To add to this list now come charges of snobbery in the women's "Terriers" —the Auxiliary Territorial Army. It is alleged that discrimination against working women in selecting officers, distinctions in the treatment j given to officers, and the demand of j doctors' fees from recruits are causing some disaffection among the rank and file. The service has been in existence for only one month, and yet bitter accusations are being made by members that the organisation is run on undemocratic lines; that well-to-do women are getting most of the commissions and executive positions. There is also said to be strong feeling against the distinctions made in the treatment and service of officers and "men." A particular objection is that those who are enrolled find they musi pay the doctor's fee for their medical examination, and a further £20 for uniforms. Shoes cost £2 12s 6d, the gloves 9s 6d, the overcoats £7 7s. To most of the recruits those prices mean no sacrifice. Half of the 130 in one week's class arrived in their own big cars, which were parked in the drill square. When they settled down for a lecture, they draped the drill hall heating pipes with their furs. Many of the women are daughters of army and county families. They stay in West End hotels during their week's training. Many of the county directors of the Women's Legion are being transferred to the Auxiliary Territorial Service. There are four duchesses, 23 women of title, and two plain "Mrs." among the county directors. WOMAN M.P/S ALLEGATION. Miss Ellen Wilkinson, M.P., who is to ask questions of the Minister of War, Mr. Hdre-fielisha, in the House of Commons, on the controversy, is reported to have said: "I have received a large number of letters protesting against the-basis on which commissions in the A.T.S. are being granted. From what has come to my knowledge, the whole organisation is permeated with snobbery. Working-class women and women who have to earn their own living are being cold-shouldered when commissions are allocated. Surely intelligent women who have to work for a living —teachers, secretaries, and^forewomen from factories —are .most suitable for commissions, because they have experience of administration and of undertaking responsible duties." A sergeant of the war-time W.A.A.C. who joined, the new organisation when it was formed in the crisis week, said: "I found the organisation in a muddle. Some of the ■bright young things who had become officers looked upon the service as a new game. Women with war-time experience like myself resented takin- orders from flappers who knew nothing about their jobs." ALLEGATIONS DENIED. Officers of the A.T.S. are declared to be indignant about the allegation of class distinctions in the service. A strong denial that such distinctions exist was made by a high official of the A.T-S. in the County of London area. "The allegation will be proved to be untrue. when the lists of officers appointed are published," she said. "It will be shown that the proportion of titles among officers is small, and that a great number of commissions have been given to working-class women." Except for the V.A.D.s, all women's auxiliaries for the Army and Air Force will in future be drawn from the A.T.S. Lady Violet Astor is Chief Controller of the A.T.S. for the County of London area and Lady Trenchard is Chief Commandant in the City of London. Dame Halen Gwynne-Vaughan, with her own desk at the Duke of York's headquarters, directs the new school for A.T.S. officers. "Many of our recruits come from families which have flourished on the tradition of the services," she said. "There are certainly women of title in the organisation. But a title is not regarded as a privilege. In the A.T.S. they will be called by the army titles. "There is a mistaken idea that we are all ladies of title and affluence. We need women who can give their time to the organisation. "Naturally we have had to seek some of our officers in county and well-to-do families because women who are working, all day could not spare the time for training." merciar outpost of Vienna, has seen the work of one and a half Fascist decades/ undone. The textile industries of Biella and Prato, with their best potential markets in countries now adjoining German territory, see their competitive power threatened. DANGEROUS EXPANSION. In this German expansion to east and south-east* much more than in possible claims to the Italian (German-speak-ing) Tyrol, Northern Italians feel the Anschluss to be dangerous to them. But it is argued in Italy that the Anglo-Franco-Italian understanding to limit German expansion broke down in 1935 through a quarrel in respect of which Italians acknowledge no blame, and therefore feel no call to press forward to repair the breakdown. Mussolini is not reproached fo/ failing to restore the "Stresa" alignment, since by their sanctibnist policy England and France are thought to have shown tendencies if anything more dangerous for Italy than those shown by Germany. England is held in part to have changed direction since those days, and thus, to be eligible for some renewed collaboration with Italy; not so France. The Italian position and power who shows concern about Germany's intentions will very probably go on in the next sentence to show still greater concern about those of France. The Founder of the Empire, then, still has such people's confidence when he claims to be acquiescing, under historical duress, in the uncomfortable embrace of Ger- j many. He sees the one way out —if any— in resumed collaboration with converted England and, through that, with converted France. But meanwhile from his office under the Capitol he anxiously watches to see whether the conversion is a genuine one. Or do the sanctionist countries still want to subvert secular Romanism and throw that immense inscription "Jussu Benito Mussolini-' in the dust?.