WOMEN'S WORK IN WAR TIME.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 144, 11 February 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

WOMEN'S WORK IN WAR TIME.

„> A GREAT RECORD. Since the war started everybody has been interested in war work, and the number of doors that are opening to women workers is increasing. When tho men went off to war, employers were asked to replace the staff with women for the duration of the war, and now we see women filling men's places and doing their work at railway stations cleaning carnages, selling tickets at the booking offices, newspapers and books at the booßstal's, and acting as porters —women in London drive motor lorries in the crowded streets, donning oilskins and sou-westers and steering their way with cool nerve. The grocery and drapery trades have been invaded by women, who have thus released thousands of recruits for the Army. They have taken up the work of postmen, tram conductors, farm workers, waiters, debt collectors, accountants, architects, but. iers, and footmen. A woman over seventy, who was an expert at gardening, took the place of a gardener who had enlisted. The Government has sad that "any woman who by working releases or equips a ma nfor fighting does national war service," and it is now the rroud boast cf many thousands of women that by their services the army is reinforced. In the munition factories they are busy filling shells to send to the sold : ors at the front who are always calling out for more. EAGER TO DO SOMETHING. Everyone was eager to do something, and the difficulty at first was to organise "the workers. This was taken in hand by the Women's Emergency Corps, and suitable work for the voluntary helpers was found. The Corps, with its staff of experienced organisers, was able to direct people's energies into the right channel without loss of time. On the roll of its voluntary workers are- women of every rr.nk and profession—lady doctors and dispensers, trained nurses, organisers of work centres, interpreters, e-ooks, etc. Offers of help "weue received from nurses from all parts of the United Kingdom. These were selected by a committee, and divided into three classes—certficated, partially trained, and those who had just been through a first aid course.

A list of the trained nurses was handed over to the Red Cross Society, and many were enrolled as volunteers for that breach. Others joined the St. John Ambulance Association for hospital work in connection with the Ternprivate nursing homes and convalescent homes for wounded solders. The less experienced women were engaged as helpers in hospitals, or worked under a nurse in the poor parts of London and other cities. To the honour of the noble band o. nurses let it be recorded that nearly every nurs..' who applied was willing to <m-e ner sciv.ces and pay her own expenses. Net en y was she wiling <o render serv .e. Mit to give her .de :r need required, as lias been done by the brave heroine, Nurse Cavell. The value of woman's worK was recognised when the War Office H«-pi-tal was opened in London with a staff of women doctors. The chief of th s hospital, Dr. Louisa Garrett Anderson, is to ber given full military rank as surgeon-major. * QUEEN MARY.

Queen Mary has taken the greatest interest in the nursing of our wounded soldiers. Whole days have been sr, -lit by her in hospitals, whether in the London iicsp tals or in the country, making a tour of every ward and addressing a few remarks to every patient" At the Naval Hospital at Chatham she talked wit.'i the Belgian wounded in their own language, and also with the German wounded at Netlev on Southampton Water. It was at the Queen's suggestion that free railway tickets from home to hospital were issued to the relatives of our dangerouslv wounded. For years the Queen has been an earnest student of social conditions, particularly in so far as they relate to woman labour. She visits almost daily the offices of her Needlework Gu Id, and occasionally visits the workrooms for women in such places as Poplar and Greenwich, Is'ington and Bethnol Green, 't was she who organised the supply of belt* and socks for the Army, and no less than seventy tons weight of these warm, comfortable articles were di-patched from Devonshin-Hou-e. . Lady French is greatly interested in finding employment for those women of tin" nvJdle classes who have been thrown cut of work by the war—typists, clerks, canva-ssers, dressmakers, shop assistants, etc. Her committee

employs large numbers of women to knit and sew. giving them ten shillings every week, together with a satisfying dinner and tea every day. They have also the pr'nugo of £oing to Old Bedford College, :n Baker Street, where they are taught toy-making free of charge, 1 esides receiving pay during their apprenticeship. A year ago one would have laughed at the idea of a woman police force. But now the Women's Police Volunteers are seen in the streets wearing a uniform of dark blue serge coat and skirt, with armlet, and the letters W. P. V. on the shoulders and front of the bowler hut. Their principal duties are connected with the welfare of women and children. THE "GLORIOUS" VAN DELIVERY. Women are greatly in request for driving delivery vans, and one of them (Miss Eva Money, the eldest daughter of General Money) describes the life as "glorious." "I come on at eight a.m. each day," she says, "and tick my name off, then I have to fill the reservoir up with petrol and clean the car, but the washing down is done for us. We do four journeys a day as a rule. We get twenty-three shillings i week, and five shillings war bonus, making twenty-eight shillings, although we lose this increase if we meet with any kind of mishap. Our uniform is a long green coat and a green cap. On the journeys we have a boy to do most of the errand work. I find it a healthy, happy life." In many factories women are hard at work filling shrapnel shells. Close at hand arc the boxes of bullets, each the size of a small marble. As soon as the shell : s full, a pint of boiling resin ha.s to be poured in to keep them "fixed," till the moment of discharge. Women like this work because they feel they are directly hclp : ng to drive back the toe.

The working condition* of women in munition fatcoriea is well described by Mr. Frank D ; 'not, who is making a special investigation of munit : on centres for the "Daily Chronicle." Tn an establishment in Birmingham he found women clad in khaki overalls at work in an airy, spacious glass-roofed place. Here and there were dotted bunches or chrysanthemums to brighten up the workroom.

They were all young women tho ages running from sixteen upwards—and ; yof them had never been in a factory before. They were cheery and intelligent, and liked the work. Each one had a lathe, which she handled deftly. Into a holder she put a nugget of aluminium, and brought to bear on it first one instrument and then another, and in a few seconds there was the white and shining centre piece that forms the nose of the shell.

Good wages are earned. At first when the women come to the factory without knowledge they are put on to watch and learn for a few days, and they get day rates, amounting, perhaps, to a pound a week. Within a fortnight they aro able to handle a lathe, and some weeks later they work on piece rates and earn two pounds :i week. The hours are very long for this, from seven : n the monrng till eight-thirty in the evening, with one and a- half hours off for meals, but they do not seem to mind.

In this time of stress women are prepared to do anything that needs to he done. Many have taken wives and children of reservists and Belgian refugees as guests in their country houses, paying all expenses. Hundreds have offered beds to wounded soldiers for i period of six months. Wealthy ladies have given their houses as convalescent homes, with all running expenses paid, where our poor wounded soldiers enjoy many comforts and revel in the fresh air and freedom of outdoor life. The Duchess of Westminster owns ft hospital of 200 beds at Le Touquet, in France, a hospital which Sir Frederick Treves lias called " a marvel of efficiencv p.nd luxury.", ' Domestic servants have subscribed for a Red Cross ambulance of their own, r.s we'l as special beds at the great military hospital which Sir Frederick Treves has called "a marvel of efficiency and luxury." Domestic servants have subscribe.', for a Red Cross ambulance of the § r own, as well as special beds at llhe great military hospital at ftot'.ey. Wives, dau£nters, and friends sew ana knit comforts for the brave men on the North Sea, at the front, and in the East. Practical patriotism is the order of the d-.y.

HEROIC FRENCHWOMEN'. The women in France organise themselves Each does the work that comes to her without fuss, and grudges neither time nor money in the doing of it. In every house there is a woman doing man's work. It is a woman who examines travellers' luggage, punches tckets on the trams, works everywhere in shops and offices. In almost all cases where a man has joined the Arnij h ; s wife or sweetheart replaces him, with the result that the fighting line is -trengthened by a million sold ers Madame Yvette Guilbert pays the following touching tribute to her countrvwemen : '"These lone'v women of trance, what sisters, what kind friends they have been to the men!* How great among great women were those who, face to face with the enemy, knew how to tame bv the power of their will the rage of the invading solidery. To yonder Frenchwomen of the villages and towns was due the carrying on of communal existence. Some of them, gathering the ((immunity under their man. agement. met in counc'l, like men of State, and took the place of the imprisoned authorities thus protecting the infant and the sick bod of the aged. General Joffre lias said of them : "Oh, our women! They are sublime' No one ever knew how heroic they could be —not even themselves." In Russia there are many exar. p'o< of heroic women at the front, wiio, in order to help their country, have obtained soldiers' uniforms and are mas(.uerading as men. They have shown magnificent courage under fire, and several*of them have received the Ciosn of St. George, the Rsusian equivalent to our V.C. Many of the women of Serbian horcler towns have asked for (It'll ; nstru - tion, in order that they may be better a'\le to defend their homes. They are ready to dio fighting for their country alongside their husbands and sons.—A Worker.