Girls Who Train In Communications Work

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 165, 15 July 1941, Page 11

Girls Who Train In Communications Work

Dot, dash, dot, dot, dash. That may not mean anything to you, but a few more dots and dashes added and it might mean something quite important to a group of girls in Auckland. By flag, lamp and buzzer (or Morse key), the romance of signalling is being not only enjoyed but seriously studied by about 80 girls of the Women's War Service Auxiliary in case of emergency. Through the week, on various nights, classes of girls learn how to flag wave (with meaning as well as with enthusiasm), and convev messages with the lamp and buzzer. The girls in the photograph are the only ones so far to have passed their first year's signalling test. Now in addition to helping with the instruction of tne others, they are learning to qualify as first-class operators. Some can send and receive messages at the rate of 20 words a minute. And how would this training serve in the war effort? Supposing communications were interrupted, these girls could lay cables across country and set up telephones between one place and another. They could set up a complete station on their own If they wanted to extend the distance, they would know how to use a telescope. They could connect cables, or if a cable became taut, they could re-' pair it without severing it and interrupting communications. They would know how to assemble and dissemble their lamps.

The value of this work is borne out by the fact that they must pass the same test as the army. Tremendous concentration is needed; in fact it is the most important qualification of

fle The .f>' e must be on the lamp or flag without a waver, as the loss of one dot or clash might mean the loss °i t} ie whole message. And if it's the buzzer that's "telling all," the ear must be unceasingly alert cent pass Is demanded from examinees in signalling—a high one, admittedly, but as it i! pointed out, one is either a signaller or not There can be no half-way when human lives might be at stake.