NURSES REFUSE DUTY

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24345, 25 August 1944, Page 7

NURSES REFUSE DUTY

* THREE PROBATIONERS AT WAIRAU HOSPITAL

MAGISTRATE IMPOSES FINE OF £5 (P.A.) BLENHEIM, August 24. Three probationers who staged a sitdown strike at the Wairau Hospital were fined £5 by Mr T. E. Maunsell, S.M., for failing to comply with a manpower direction. , , Senior-Sergeant Smyth said the girls volunteered for nursing, but later sought their release on the ground that they made a mistake in taking up the profession. When permission was refused they went to Wellington, where they reported to the Manpower Officer, who directed them back to the Wairau Hospital. Since then they had refused duty, simply sitting about in the nurses’ home. Upon receiving summonses they lodged appeals, which had not been heard. “You can’t force us to stay at nursing if we don’t want to.” one defendant told the Magistrate. Mr Maunsell: I can do a good many things. I can force you to work for three months in a place very much more uncomfortable than a hospital. Don’t dictate to me what I can or can’t do. Your standard of conduct is disgracefully low Your standard of selfishness is correspondingly high. That is my opinion of you. "Have you ever worked at a job you loathe?” asked another defendant. The Magistrate; Yes. X have, and I could tell you of some others—those young men in the trenches *ho are giving their lives for their country, but you do nothing for your country. I’m afraid I don’t think much of you as citizens.