WOMEN'S WAR WORK.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 31, 5 February 1916, Page 4

WOMEN'S WAR WORK.

Tbe women of Britain have responded splendidly to the industrial call of tha hour. Thousands have taken the placs of men wanted for the army or war work at Home, and thousands, many of them wgmen quite unaccustomed to manual labour, are working long hours in the munition factories. Some very < interesting facts on this subject, which are particularly worth referring to in view of Mr. Asquith's de; claration that a great deal more unskilled labour is needed, came recently to hand in the form of an article in the

■' Daily Chronicle," and a bulletin by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. Many women, for instance, are employed on railways and in tram seryices. They work as porters, booking clerks, carriage cleaners, signallers' assistants, telegraphists, and. tram conductors. Before the war the Great Central Railway Company employed 300 women; it now employs 1,300, Report speaks highly of the general efficiency of women so employed. London has women postmen, women "gas-men/ 5 and women chauffeurs. Newcastle e.ven employs women Bttest-S£ayengers, But the most striking development is seen in the munition factories. The writer in the "Daily Chronicle" saw, at Coventry, a shell factory manned by women drawn from the leisured classes. Under the supervision of a few trained women, they work ten hours a day with skill and enthusiasm. " Under one roof in Birmingham I saw three thousand girts engaged in making fuses for British and Russian guns —and Birmingham is ringed with factories. At Newcastle a single munition firm alone employs sis thousand women. The point that has to be remembered is that these hosts of women war-workers have volunteered from widely varied conditions "of life. It is a democratic army, like our Army in the field. There aTe well-to-do women in the ranks, as well as domestic servants;, there are school-teachers and shop girls, the daughters of professional men as well as the wives of soldiers at tho front." One of the journalists who recently made a tour of the great manufacturing centres emphasises the keen' ness of these workers. Nearly all foremen spoke of their willingness, energy, and punctuality.

Mr. Asquith's statement that the progress of munitions work, owing to the delay in diluting skilled with unskilled labour, is still far behind national requirements, reveals a serious situation. But if the agreement arrived at recently with Labour on this subject is kept, it should not be very difficult to remove the. danger. In this women will have more opportunities to work for the national cause. It is significant that the " Daily Chronicle'" article from which we have quoted says that the mobilisation of women has hitherto proceeded without general systematic organisation. If the call is sounded, he says, the response will be overwhelming. "A million by methods antf haphazard. Two million is a moderate estimate of those who remain ready and waiting to serve their country." Besides these women, there must be many thousands of men who could be transferred from unnecessary work on luxuries to vital work'on munitions. There is. plenty of material waiting to be organised for victory.