WOMEN IN MALE ATTIRE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10277, 12 May 1919, Page 9

WOMEN IN MALE ATTIRE

Many: of the wonienwar-workers are expressing their intention. to: continue wearing men's attire on their return to civil Jife (says the London "National News"). "Our only trouble," said one ot them, "is—What will the police sayr 1 We have read of women having been prosecuted for masquerading in men's attire before the war, and wo wonder if the same will happen again now that the war is over." - -The the police are alive-ito the. prob-s ability of many women continuing': to appear publicly in breeches and short coats, similar to those worn by men, w'a sadmitted at Scotland Yard recently, and the police find the problem somewhat diffioult.

It was explained that there exists no statute to prevent a. woman irom walking about in public in any costume. She inay, it she chooses, wear exactly th esame clothes as a man. In ,cases where women haye;,h<j,en" prosecut-i ed the charge has been so framed* as to' show that she was guilty of conduct likely to load to a breach of the peace, or that she was breaking some statute not concerned with clothing. The police instructions are not to interfere with women because of their dress, if the women are doing some form of work. But if, after work io over, they elect to walk about in tho town or on the sea front in men's dress they will run grave risks of being apprehended by the police. ."■'■'■",.."