WOMEN AND WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 145, 20 June 1940, Page 14

WOMEN AND WAR.

BUILDING A NEW ORDER. PEACE' FROM THINKING. Sjnbil Morrison, writing in December last.in an English paper, says: In a reoent broadcast Sir Samuel Hoare told the women of this country that there would eoon be plenty of work for them and that the defence of their' country is as much the business of women ae it is of men. In other words, the war of 1939 cannot be carried on without the assistance of women any more than the war of 1914 could have been maintained without the help of women. From 1914 to 1918 women worked in all capacities in order to release men for the fighting line; they became ambulance drivers, lorry drivers, land workers, motor mechanics, bue conductors, munition workers, clerks. The only position they were not ealled upon to fill was the position of: a combatant. 3 Women may work to support a war.j but they may nojt kill. Why? What' inherent instinct draws us back shocked from the idea of women as soldiers, sailors or air fighters. If defence of this country is part of a woman's business then must not war aleo be part of a woman's business, since defence of one's country in war. And yet/- ... ™ W ? r i. and T oraen - Wo »'en and war. Whet have these two to do with each other? Women, whose function it is to ; tend and cherish, to comfort and con-I eole? women, whose function it is to] create and to bear children with infinite > patience and in great pain. ! What have these things to do with war, the function of which is to wound and destroy? It is time, then, for women to take a hand in building up a new order and in creating the necessary conditions for peace. , All over the world women are pondering on these vital things— and in thought are all things first made. Let ue all add to the great volumes ofll thought that will, we, hope'and believe, some day be translated into action—for-, peace. ■ •►*:■• ■:- :,.' ' h-.-, :■■? . . \