Her Part in the Event of War is Already Decided on in Many Countries

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 261, 31 July 1937, Page 5 (Supplement)

Her Part in the Event of War is Already Decided on in Many Countries

There is little doubt as to the part woman the world over will play in the event of another war. Her work will no longer be confined to the hospital, the ambulance service, and to the usual civilian duties. Her services are as likely to be as militaristic as those of her brothers or her father, and we may yet see her marching step by step with them into the fight. Already many countries are mobilising and training their women in preparation for war, and in Spain to-day they are fighting side by side with their men. Now the newly-emancipated women of the East are learning to emulate their more enlightened sisters of the West—they are forming themselves into battalions and their daily work is interspersed with training in soldiery.

L IKE her brothers and her father, she is likely to make a thorough job of her training and throw herself into fighting with as much fervour and disregard of life. But it is doubtful if, after all. she will outdo the enthusiasm of her Western sisters when it comes to the fight. She would have to go a long way to outdo the bravery, the stoicism and yet the utter ruthlessness anc. bestial cruelty of the Russian women revolutionaries. They were the first women within recent years to take an active ngrt to any extent in organised warfare, and they made such a success of it that their'menfolk evidently had no

qualms about retaining their services in times of peace. Today women in Russia share military training in all its phases and on an equal footing with men. They form a good part of the air force, and are expert military parachutists. Which all goes to show that women are certainly getting emancipated. But is it the emancipation they asked for? Did woman ever imagine, when she set out on her campaign for equal rights that she would obtain them as a soldier as well as a civilian? Woman is thorough in everything she does —once she makes up her mind to it. If she makes up her mind to

turn Amazon again, she will. And this time it may be to man’s advantage. And then again there is the modern contrast. Woman is leading the world in a campaign for peace. It is noticeable- that the only really enthusiastic nationalities are British and American. Will they be prepared to sacrifice their cause or will they go back on the ideals fo,r equality they fought for when they set the fashion for military suffrage? And there again they fought, so that real soldiering might be something natural, to the new order. If they don’t want to light, men will

have every right to turn to them, saying, “Well, you asked for equality!” Of course, whether women have received equality in civilian matters sufficient to entitle them co this treatment. is a matter likely to raise a storm of argument and controversy. But in the event of another world war there will be no time to argue. Unless the women who work for peace do something effective and that soon, they might as well start to follow the example of the Japanese women, the German women, and then the Spanish women. They may yet reverse the old tradition and “leave the man behind them.”—BlS.