WOMEN’S UNIT FOR MIDDLE EAST

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 47, 19 November 1941, Page 9

WOMEN’S UNIT FOR MIDDLE EAST

Duty In Hospitals DETACHMENT OF 200 NEEDED A unit to be called the New Zealand Wojnen’s War Service Auxiliary (Overseas Hospital Division), and to consist of 200 women, is to go to the Middle East for duty with the Second N.Z.E.F., according to an announcement yesterday by the Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser. The detachment would largely be Volunteer Aids, with a small number of women for clerical duties in the hospitals, he said. The unit is being organized through the Women’s War Service Auxiliary, which is the official Government organization for the co-ordination and allocation of wojnen’s war work. Volunteer Aids will be chosen by the National Volunteer Aid Council from members of the Order of St. John and the Red Cross Society, and the central executive of the Women’s War Service Auxiliary will make arrangements for equipping and mobilizing those selected. The women required for clerical duties will be selected by the central executive of the Women’s War Service Auxiliary from nominations received through its district committees. The applications will be confined to members of the Women’s War Service Auxiliary and its affiliations, and to ensure that the unit will be as efficient as possible, the highest standards will be required.

REQUIREMENTS OUTLINED

The unit, it is understood, will consist of four officers, 182 voluntary aids, and 14 members for clerical duties. It will be under the control of the matron-in-chief, Army Nursing Service Overseas, Miss E. Nutsey. The final selection of aids will be made from f 364 nominations to be forwarded by the district organizations of the Order of St. John and. the Red Cross Society.

The quotas required in the first instance, the numbers to be divided equally between the two organizations concerned, are as follows: —Auckland 120, Hawke’s Bay 18, Taranaki 18, Wellington district 76, Marlborough 4, Nelson 14, Westland ‘4, Canterbury 56, Otago-Southland 54. The selection committee consists of Miss M. I. Lambie, Director of the Nursing Division, and chairman of the National Voluntary Aid Council; Miss I. Willis, Matron-in-Chief, Army Nursing Service; Miss L. Banks, matron, Palmerston North Hospital; Miss E. Tennent, Red Cross Society; Mrs. G. Barltrop, Order of St John; and a member of the Women’s War Service Auxiliary, central executive, to be appointed. The nominations, through the two societies, must reach Miss Lambie by November 27. Equal Representation. It is intended to have the Order of St. John and the Red Cross Society equally represented in the final selection of personnel. Applicants must be single women who have attained the age of 23 on December 1, 1941, and have not attained the age of 34 on the same date. They are required to be the holders of first aid, home nursing, and home hygiene certificates, and to have taken courses of 60 hours’ training in public hospitals. They must also be active members of either the St. John Ambulance Nursing Division or Red Cross Aid Detachments, and of the medical standard required of nurses' for overseas with the Army Nursing Service. Successful applicants will be attested for service overseas with the 2nd N.Z.E.F., and they will be required to serve for the duration of the war and twelve months thereafter. Selection is to be based on suitability, personality, general physique, and previous experience, and references as to character will be required of each nominee.

The four oflicerts are not to be trained nurses, and their age limit will be 37 years.