DOMESTIC TRAINING

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 306, 4 February 1910, Page 3

DOMESTIC TRAINING

The London Standard's Berlin correspondent remarks that a remarkable proposal was put forward at the Conference of Women's Associations which took place there under the auspices of the German Evangelical Women's League, to formulate proposals' for the settlement of the difficulties oi domestic, service. Various delegates asserted that much of the friction arising between' mistresses and domestic servants is' due' to the ignorance of both classes about household work, and it was proposed that a period of compulsory household service for all German girls shall be introduced by law. It was suggested in all seriousness, and advocated by a' number of influential delegates, that ;,ust as all German men are compelled to serve in the army, in the same way should all German girls be compelled by law to 'serve for a certain minimum period in the kitchen and in the household. It was recognised that an elaborate system of registration and of police supervision would have to be created i* order to enforce the proposed eompuN feory household and kitchen service, and, pending the achievement of this fevohl-i tionary change in German domestic life, the delegates adopted what they considered to be a programme of immediate practical reforms in demanding the introduction of a legal form of Agreement between employers and domestic servants, the creation of a Court of Arbitration to settle disputes between ifiousewives and tlieir cooks and housemaids, and State provision for the better training of domestic servants in the different branches of their household ■work.