Government Secrets

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 296, 10 September 1938, Page 7 (Supplement)

Government Secrets

Should . Woman Cabinet Minister Confide In Husband?

J )OES a woman Cabinet Minister ■*-' have to be careful about keeping Government secrets from her husband? This was one of the questions Miss Frances Perkins, the United States Secretary for Labour, was asked on her recent visit to London. She laughed aid said: “That depends on the spouse—and whether he is a gossip! My husband isn’t one!” Miss Perkins, who came to England to study labour conditions, said: ‘■There is no question of maleness or femaleness in carrying out a task such as mine. Women have reached a time when they should cease to be self-conscious about being women where work is concerned.

“Think how often.a widowed woman has set to work to carry out a heroic task. How often a woman who has lost her husband has carried on the hard work of a farm. She has no selfconsciousness of being a woman then.” Dealing with the purpose of her visit, she said:

“We are anxious to find out how you manage to settle labour disputes over here in the way you do. We are very impressed by the fact that disputes here are adjusted. You don’t seem to settle them by law, but by custom and habit.

“i am here for only a week, for I have to return to Washington to see about the new 44-hours Week Bill which comes into force on October 1.”