PARTS OF THE DAY’S WORK.

Taihape Daily Times, 8 November 1918, Page 6

PARTS OF THE DAY’S WORK.

SCENE OF TERROR AND HEROISM,

We have become more or less familiar, at least in so far ias description can bring it home to ns, with the effect of air raids on the streets of London. But terrible as these sensations arc, they are mild in comparison with the anxiety which the women workers in munitions factories face in the middle of the night wdien darkness swoops down and they know a raid is cn. Mrs. A. Burnett Smith in her recent “An English Woman’s Home,” gives a vivid account of a scene of terror and heroism which has hitherto been insufficiently realised. She thus describes her experience:—

“The other night I had rather a curious experience. They asked me if I would go down to a big eh ell factory, almost entirely manned by women, and speaW to the squad on the night shift.

“1 was walking to and fro on the great floor of the factory, and had just paused to ask a rather white, sadfaced girl what was worrying her, when suddenly the light went out. We knew what that meant, all of us, and it really was one of the most awful moments I have ever experienced. As we listened through a silence that could be felt, the machinery having stopped as if by magic, we could hear the sinister grinding of the Zeppelin engine ovorhed. We all knew that if a bomb crashed through the frail roof very few of the four thousand would see another dawn.

"Presently nerves began to break a little; sobs sounded here and there, and once there was a little scream Then some .angel in a far guided from above, no doubt, began to sing law and softly, "Jesus, lover of my soul. ’ ’

“ After a time the menace passed, lights went up again, and work was quickly and cheerfully resumed. We did not speak about it at all afterwards. It is just part of the day’s •work.’ ’