WAR NOTES FOR WOMEN.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 89, 15 December 1914, Page 3

WAR NOTES FOR WOMEN.

BELGIAN REFUGEE STUDENTS.

The council of the East London College (University of London) has authorised the admission, at normal fees, of students whose courses at Belgian } 'and French universities have been interrupted in consequence of the war.

SEAMEN'S PRACTICALITY. The Mission to Seamen has embarked on an interesting and practical venture within the past few weeks, and has published free a little book called "Ladies' Work 'for Sailors " containing directions for making all the woollen comforts which are now being asked for as gifts to the men who are guarding our coasts in the North Sea. QUEEN MARY'S GUILE?. Last week alone nearly 50,000 garments were distributed by." Queen "Mary's Needlework Guild to tlibSe in need. WOMEN TRAM CONDUCTORS. "' The, introduction of women in France and Germany as tram conductors during war time, is by no means a new experiment, as those, who have been to Valparaiso and Santiago will know. Chili at the time of its war with Peru used young women as conductors so as to free men for military service. The girls thus employed became so popular, through their courtesy to the public, that they were retained after the war was over, and to-day they form a unique feature of every large Chilian city. As a uniform they wear straw sailor hats, and over their dresses white aprons, in the pockets of which they carry money and tickets. Strapped to the waist they carry a leather bag, or portfolio, for the other necessaries of their business.

FOREIGN GRAVES IN ENGLAND. The St. Pancras cemetery, one of the largest in London, where most of the foreigners who die in the metropolis will naturally be buried, is making special arrangements to meet the demand and providing for temporary deposit only if relatives wish this. A proposal is afoot to turn an arch underneath a viaduct in the cemetery in the into a catacomb. FLORA ANNIE STEEL,' the well-known novelist, who had a distinguished career in India, where she for years held a Government post, is now turning her knowledge of the country to good account and is providing correct native patterns tor the warm clothes and comforts she is collecting for the Indian troops now on the Continent. The garments can be made up under her sui>ervision by out-of-work bushu'ss women.

CELLULOID FORBIDDEN,

The Commissioner of City Police (London) has given "notice, under the provisions of the Defence of the Realms Act, prohibiting persons in the city having in their possession or control celluloid or xylonite, or kindred substances, in any larger quantities than 121 b, though'* celloloid which has been subjected to any manufacturing process is exempt.

OVERCROWDED HOLLAND

Bread is getting more and more scarce in Holland. "To-day I saw telegrams from the mayors of eight places in Zeeland, asking for thousand* of loaves, to be sent every day,'' a woman correspondent resident in Flushing had in one of the morning papers recently. "The Dutch Government has sent money, but there is no flour, even to make 'oorlogsbrod' (war bread). Nobody may be supplied with white bread unless -he produces "a doctor's certificate."

SWEATED WORK EVEN NOW! •Members of the Stepney Public Health Committee, a progressive body in one of the most crowded boroughs in the East End, have called attention to the wages paid by some of the War Office contractors to their outworkers for the making of soldiers' uniforms.

For> making a khaki jacket 2/9 ia paid, and 3/3 for an overcoat, though, in view of the stringency of the inspection of the completed goods, only experienced persons can do. the work satisfactorily f Needle 3» to say, such a pittance is very far from being a living wage ? and it ia the more '-ironic when the high prices, paid by the Government for uniforms are remembered. The committee recommend that the facts should be represented, to the War Office and the Board of Trade.

SUFFRAGETTES' WONDERFUL WORK.

Besides tho two" Coat-Price'' restaurants that are very successfully at work in r the East End (and a third ia soon to be opened), where 2d dinners are served in'the middle of the day, and nourishing' aoup at Id a pint in the evening, the East London Federation of Suffragists—Misa Sylvia : Pankhurst'» branchhas many original activities. It ia also finding employment for a small number of women, a number,whiyh.will-be indefinitely increased when, more 1 orders are received- for needlework, brushmaking,' dolls, and toys of all 'kinds. The dolls are specially, aejignjflj ajfo

the dolls will eventually prove a commercial success. A boot factory on a co-operative basis is now being started and support is being asked not in money but in custom.

It was this Federation that was responsible for inaugurating, at the very beginning of the war, when distress was at once rife in the Bow area, a specifically poverty-stricken part, pure milk depots and restaurants for mothers.

INDEX OF REFUGEES. So great is often —and naturally—the confusion amongst the poor Belgians who have fled their country that parents get separated from their children, brothers from sisters, and so on. At Somerset House now an army of clerks is kept hard at work compiling a card index register of all refugees in the country. Particulars (including name age, sex, nationality, occupation ana address, both at home and in Great Britain) are to be sent to Somerset House from the Aldwyeh. headquarters and. other places where registers are kept, and all possible help is given, the unfortunate ones in'tracing their human belongings!' ;''*'■ ' ,

WOMEN'S CHEMICAL COMPANY,

A proposal-has been put forward by a Scotch doctor, to one of the suffrage bodies, that aAVomen's Chemical Company shQuld be.formed to help ease the stress of unemployment amongst women, and at the same, time cope with the scarcity of potassium salts by manufacturing these in some coast town in Scotiaud from seaweed, which is easily obtainable in great quantities there.