QUICKER AND MORE ADAPTABLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 81, 5 April 1940, Page 10

QUICKER AND MORE ADAPTABLE.

Learned To Play Drum In Two Days. Our women have jrnt used to their uniforms. Six months lias worn the newness oft" them, and in that time the women have proved to the men of the Services that they are not just a wartime lieauty chorus, save a writer in thv "Daily K.\press." It was not easy. They had to put up with ii lot of jri.srjrles aiwl rude remarks. Yesterday I vent to an R.A.F. camp a few miles outside London; and felt a very different atmosphere from my vir'it. in October. Th«y had just settled into lwrraekn then. au<l the men were not sure they wanted a lot of women runninsr around the place. Tn fact, they were rather sure that they didn't. I But. the airwomen took the same discipline, (settled in similar barracks, had the same food. They expected no I privilfrjrea and they worked hard. ■ Croup Captain (iaskcll Blackburn, who has handled 100.000 men recruits in four years and a half, told me that within a few weeks the jrirls had pot the respect of every man in the barracks. '"They're grand girls and they work hard. There's nothing soft about them. They have impressed me." Just before the barracks were ready I for the airwomen. Group Captain Blackj burn had passed 1000 men through. I "And I say quite frankly that pirls are eight or nine days quicker in picking up routine and drill. They're tremen- ; dously adaptable." He etood on a grass verjre and took j the march past of the new recruits. They were led by a drum and fife band, playing "Annie Laurie." The band is quite new. Two jrirls learned to play the bijr drum in two days. Corporal Erenbert. who was blowins hard on a fife, learned the notes only the day lie fore. Squadron Officer McAlery, who i* the senior W.A.A.F. officer at the barracks, said they had just one small difficulty with the band. The jrirls did like to hum when they heard music. She eaid the jrirls were trained for real work—instrument mechanics, fabric workers, light machine repairers, and teleprinter operators. They have a long canteen where they spend their evenings, and when I asked the X.A.A.F.T. attendant what the jrirle buy with their pocket money she said: "Well, they're fond of a glass of light ale, or stout, and they like mixed boiled sweets. They absolutely gabble chocolate, and we eell hundreds of cigarettee." There are card tables and packe of cards, but on the notice 'board, in capital letters, is "Gambling strictly forbidden—by ord,er." I ■watched a new recniit being settled down. She came in wearing a musquash coat and high court shoes. She went out with a pile of blue eerge, and a ehirt and collar (studs for the collar are provided). You might think that the Air Force supply rather grim underwear. Not at •all. I saw a heap of pink satin suspender belts and pale pink lawn brassieres. The recruit was met by an X.C.O. whom the girls call the "Nanny." (Mrs. McAlery said they were careful not to terrify the new girls with officers and the formality around them.) "The recruit was being aeked: "Would yon like a drink? You must be tired. Would you like "h. rest ? Have you had anything to eat?" Once they have settled down, these women give up their old comforts without any sense of regret. But that, they know, will come when they have earned the peace.