WAR AND WOMEN.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1915, Page 6

WAR AND WOMEN.

BRITAIN'S GRAVE PROBLEM. MILLION HUSBANDS SHORT. "A million girls now between 16 and 20 will never be married." With that statement in a sermon the other day, the Rev. J. C. V. Durell, 8.D., rector of Rothcrhithe, London, has Drought people face to face with one of the most pressing social problems arising out of the war; and in the article below he tells how he thinks people ought to deal with it. Mr. Durell is one of the most active of London's slum clergymen). One whose dally work brings him intc constant touch with the London working classes must necessarily be conscious in a peculiar degree of the tremendous social problems which are already pressing, and of others which after the war will press for solution. The great workman's city of South London, with its two million inhabitants, may be taken as a microcosm of the nation. And Rotherhithe, with the immense contribution of men It has made to the service of the country, provides a field for estimating what will be the bearing of these specific war problems upon the country at large.

One such problem is that of maniage. At the present time the question of the replenishing of the population presses upon us with special emphasis. Thousands upon thousands of our noblest and best have laid down their lives for their country; the most vigorous and highspirited of our young English manhood has been swept away.

Those who have died are they who, if it had not been for the war, would have been fathers, and, indeed, among the best fathers, of the new generation.

HASTY MARRIAGES. What can we do to meet this terrible loss? That the Government is alive to die problem of replenishing zne nexi generation may be inferred from the steps taken in regard to the marriage of soldiers. Whether the encouragement they have given to the marriage of soldiers is wise in every respect may perhaps be doubted. Take, for instance, the granting of separation allowances. Many soldiers marry immediately upon enlistment in order' to secure the payment of a separation allowance. There are cases in which the young woman persuades the soldier to marry her before he goes on the ground that it won't do him any harm, and that it will bring her in a useful income. It is to be feared that married life entered upon with these motives and under these circumstances will not have much chance of permanent happiness.

The soldier below commissioned rank ean now obtain a marriage license for 10s. As a surrogate for marriage licenses in the midst of a dense population, from which a very large number of men have been recruited, I have been able to witness the operation of this new regulation. Often it is a lad of 19 with a girl of 18 who come for a 10s license. And the question suggests itself whether it is really wise to encourage this. My own feeling is that separation allowances should not be granted in future cases unless the man is of full age and the woman at least 20.

WAR WIDOWS. Certainly we want the population renewed, but we also want happy homes. We want the children brought up under healthy conditions. Are these young war marriages likely to produce strong, well-brought-up children? Associated "with this is the problem of those whom we may almost speak of as the child widows. Widowhood, alas! must be the lot of many of those who are now marrying so light-hearted-ly. How are the lives of these young widows to be guided? The country will pay them a pension, but that must not be the end of the public responsibility. They will be specially tempted, for the temptation to a fall from virtue is greater in a young widow than in a maid. The care for our war widows will afford a wide field for loving, sympathetic work at the hands of those good 'women who devote their lives to the service of the poor.

AND AFTER? Turn now to the question of employment of women after the war. At present there is a super-abundance of work for women, and they are earning very high wages. We have many women in Rotherhithe who in ordinary times might earn a few shillings a week now earning lfls a day sewing sacks for the Government at half-a-crown a hundred. Women, of course, are now filling many posts which before the war were filled by men. • What, then, is to happen after the war to the 'vast number of young women for whom, owing to the immense preponderance of the sex, marriage will be out of the question? The men will return and claim their old posts, and many women will be ousted from their present work. To undertake this work, for which they are now being highly paid, many of them have left their normal situations, and their special war work will have unfitted* them for what they were doing before. This is especialy true of domestic service, which many girls have thrown up, attracted by the glamor of temporary high pay. What is to be done to secure continued employment for these girls?

WHERE THEY MIGHT REMAIN. Now, a compact as to the employment of women's labor was made with the trade unions. There were certain conditions as to rates of wages and the cessation of such employment after the war. This compact must he honorably observed. But much good might be done by a frank discussion of the situation with the trade unions. It should bo possible to arrive at an agreement whereby certain forms of work, which women can do as well as men, should continue to be done by women. To give an example: On the railways, booking clerks might well be women, as on tho Continent.

In order to prepare the way for such changes as these we need a more elastic system of education, both in the elementary schools and in the secondary aided schools. We want greater faci> litics for preparing our girls for their work, fuller opportunities for eommer. cial and technical training. In whatever directions we seek to economise let it not be in the essentials of education. For the boys and girls now at school are they who wiil form the new England, which through the birth-pains of this terrific struggle, will emerge from the war. ,