WAR ADJUSTMENTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20128, 23 December 1939, Page 13

WAR ADJUSTMENTS

DUTIES OF WOMEN HOMES TOPSY-TURVEY MANY PROBLEMS LONDON, Dec. i. The war has, as always, turned woman's world completely upside down. To men it has brought an exhilaration and a sense of achievement; to the older men a renewed youth and elasticity, to the younger men a sense of responsibility and of their worth to the nation. All ages alike rejoice in their uniform and patriotic fervor keeps their spirits high. But to the women it is all rather bewildering. To the average wife and mother unable by domestic ties or other restrictions to offer himself for active services, it is a question of standing by, coping with all the difficulties and inconveniences, presenting a cheerful front and hiding as best she can the heartache of it all. Only a few months ago life was pursuing its normal course. Now woman’s world has become devastated. She is up against a thousand problems she never thought she would have to face. Difficult Choice. Evacuation has proved so far perhaps the greatest problem. At a moment’s notice thousands of women have had to choose between husband and children; between her duty to the man who is to her sometimes a grown child, and her duty to the real child who must at all costs be protected from themmealn + al and physical effects of war. But the problems of evacuation were far beyond the mere question of safety. Homes had to be broken up at short notice, not only for a brief spell, but for the "duration.” Wives who had always queened it in their own domain had to become unwelcome visitors in the homes of others, feeling distressed, unhappy and immeasurably' lonely, conscious of the fact that their menfolk were being negiected, and obsessed with the feeling that it would be very difficult after a long break to take up the threads of domestic life where they had been laid down. On the other hand, those who had to receive the evacuated women and children had to have their lives turned topsy turvey. Maiden ladies were landed with half a dozen children; careful and prim housewives had to receive easy-going mothers with several unruly and ill-managed children. Bachelors with large homes and a single housekeeper were horrified at being invaded by a bevy of expectant mothers and nurses. Evacuation has created problem after problem seemingly impossible to solve. But as all upheavals do, it already has begun to settle down. The common sense of suffering has helped make everyone understand. Never Undressed For Bed The humorous stories told of the evacuation will go down into history, particularly where the children are concerned. Transporting East End kiddies into palatial homes has certainly had some extraordinary reactions. Those are the children who never have known what it is to be undressed to go to bed. Sometimes they would re-dress and go to bed complete W'ith shoes as they do at home. Some children have been found sleeping under the bed because "at home mother and father always sleep on top.” Others, used to “fish and chips” and beer for supper, have turned distastefully from the dainty meals prepared for them. But to many thousands of children has come a sense of beauty and sweetness in life of which they never dreamed, and its influence will not be lost. Youth Is Thrilled In her dress, the war-time woman has gone “sensible.” Perhaps the whole trend of war worry is responsible, perhaps merely the idea that she must look her part, but frills and flounces have been put aside, highheeled shoes stowed away for postwar festivities, curls have been cut and trimmed to look businesslike rather than artistic, and neatness and practicability appear to be the order of the day in all forms of dress. To the younger generation the war is, of course, at this stage an immense