WOMEN'S WORK IN WAR TIME.

White Ribbon, Volume 21, Issue 248, 18 February 1916, Page 8

WOMEN'S WORK IN WAR TIME.

Town Clerks.—We learn that a Scott* h town boasts of a lady as Town Clerk. Coining nearer home, a lady occupies the position of Town Clerk at Suva, Fiji, and lately one New Zealand town has appointed a lady as Town Clerk. Waste In Camps.—A writer in an English exchange gives an instructive example of the savings effected in a convalescent camp, with an average daily strength of 2«Sco, by substituting women cooks for men, a saving which involves no shortage of food for any man, and at the same time resulted in a greater variety of diet, much appreciated by the men. In one month the savings effected in four items alone were: Meat, 547 1 lb; bread, 73601 b; tea, iq 1 lb; mustard, 171 b. “The actual cash saved was By the sale of fat, Z*3s was realise ’, and by the sale of refuse £\\. The total saved on the month was nearly £9OO. As this does not touch the question of the prices at which goods are bought notoriously extravagant in many cases —it is possibly a moderate estimate to assume that in a camp of 3000 men a saving of j£i°oo a month could be effected. Putting the number of men in camps in the United Kingdom at this moment at 1,500,000, it will be seen that a saving of ,£500,000 a month could be achieved by this means (the employment of women cooks) alone. Is there no room,” he finally demands, “for women quartermasters?” We believe that the same applies in our own camps, and that women cooks would effect a great saving without in any way stinting the men of food, and would also give them greater variety of diet. When the allowance of food is the same for each man. and that allowance sufficient for the greatest eater in the camp, it stands to reason that many men do not eat all their allowance, which finds its way into the pig bucket. Our Defence authorities think it quite the correct thing to send women to nurse the soldiers who get sick. Why is it not the correct thing to send women into the camp to cook the food and attend to other household matters to keep the boys in health? Women Non-commissioned Officers. A hundred domestic science teachers under f he London County Council volunteered to spend their holidays in

the home camps teaching soldiers how to cook. Their offer was accepted by the War Office, for good soldier cooks are scarce in the new armies, and this fact accounts for a good deal of the waste of which we hear so much. In order that these patriotic women should havQ the necessary authority, they have been given the temporary status of non-commissioned officers. A writer who travelled lately through Northern France writes: — “Everywhere women had taken the place of men. There was not a man under 50 to be found in any business house, and even in the cafes and restaurants women had replaced the waiters. In the butcher’s shop a woman was cutting up meat, women were baking the bread, selling cutlery and hardware, running the hotels, and taking photographs. All the railroad crossings are guarded by women to wheel the gates back and forth. At the Hotel d’Angieterre, in Beauvais, the porter who met the car at the door was a woman, the clerk in the office was a woman, and a woman was runnings the hotel. Indeed, I afterwards discovered that there were only three men employed in the place—one was an old servant, who looked after the boots and ran errands, one was a Belgian refugee, who helped in the kitchen, and one was a Swiss waiter.”