I BELIEVE IN OUR WOMEN.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 February 1920, Page 4

I BELIEVE IN OUR WOMEN.

(London Paper.)

Why are our Church dignitaries so gloomy about the relations of the sexes, the moral state of Society, and the future of Englishwomen? Certainly the Bishop of Coventry, judging by his lat. est public utterance, is in no doubt whatever that a lamentable state of laxity pervades the morals of our women to-day; and if he has the gift of prophecy, worse is to come. Here is a quotation from liis- recent remarks:

“There js to-day,” lie said, “an awful and unsavoury increase in licence, and ive are only at the beginning of the misery.” He adds that it is either the result of greater freedom, between the sexes during the war or an evil excrescence which has followed on the wider occupation of women. Serious is it not? But whether he is right in his estimate of the present-day state of affairs or justified in alarming us is not so clear. If but half of this indictment is correct, things are certainly in a bad way. But is it true? Is there even the proverbial grain of truth in it? No! most emphatically No! Times have changed beyond recognition. Women dress differently, talk in what would be an unintelligible jargon to our grandmothers and think differently. In the Victorian days dresses were alarmingly low. One wondered what kept them on the shoulders at all. Now' they are low—in the back and short of skirt; but no one was shocked then, or if they were it made no difference. Frivolous girls were giddy then in a different way. They sometimes kissed their partners or allowed themselves to be kissed, under a palm tree in a conservatory—and carefully kept the incident to themselves. Now the stolen kigs can be more easily given and taken and therefore it would mean less. jberiousliy, when one the thousands of unprotected women engaged in war work during the last five years, and naturally subject to life’s ordinary temptations, and considers also the rarity of scandal, one is unspeakably proud of them all. It is a falsehood to say such tilings may have been hushed up, for, as intelligent people know well, everything comes out in the long run, and if oui women had disgraced themselves as a body, we should soon know all about it. The fact is they did not, and they never will.

The married women also have been splendid, as many and many a brave fellow 'encompassed during his fiery trial by the love of some pure woman can testify. And if some have failed well, marriage is a habit, and that habit was rudely broken by years of enforced separation. Therefore the fact that some could not stand the strain proves nothing at all. As for the future of women here in England it has never looked so bright. Soon, very soon, they will be active participants, politically, in the great game of Life, and able to help in the making of laws that guide our destin-

ies. . „ Will they he worthy of this? Undoubtedly; and the way to prove it is to believe in them.