WOMEN IN THE WAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 May 1942, Page 4

WOMEN IN THE WAR

NOTABLE FIGURES ON ALLIED SIDE. NO COUNTERPARTS IN AXIS COUNTRIES. That women are playing a great part in this war is a fact well established by now, but it attains an added emphasis from such events as the visit of Mme. Chiang Kai-shek to India with her husband, says a writer in the “Manchester Guardian.” There was once a Stanley of Alderley whose wife was introduced by Palmerston to a foreign diplomatist as “our Chief of General Staff,” but there was never a war in history in which there were so many outstanding feminine personalities, and it is worth noting that they are are all on the side of the Allies, for we hear no mention of any woman of really first-class importance in the Axis scheme of things. Mme. Chiang Kaishek’s influence in China may be compared with that of Mrs Roosevelt in the United States, and the very fact that some members of Congress have commented adversely on some details of that influence only serves to underline its importance. In our own country we have in Queen Elizabeth one of the best of women broadcasters, apart from her constant work for nurses and other feminine causes. Perhaps the most interesting of our recent visitors from Russia was a woman trade union representative, and the part played by Russian women requires no underlining. Nor should the noble fortitude of Queen Wilhelmina be overlooked. It is surely a point of some significance that there is no feminine equivalent of any kind on the Axis side.