PHONE FRIENDSHIPS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 106, 31 October 1931, Page 22

PHONE FRIENDSHIPS

Voices across the sea are said to be establishing a new tie between Great Britain and America. To-day when Miss New York says "Hello London," she is saluting a friend. For since the opening of the trans-Atlantic telephone service four years ago, the operators of New York and London who handle overseas calls have been getting acquainted. Together they rejoice when the line is clear. Together they sorrow over static that smothers the business code of a busy merchant, or the words of a lover talking to his sweetheart in Spain, writes Diana Rice in the "New York Times." All European calls are routed through London's exchanges, so it is the operators of that centre who respond to York's hello girls. The "Are you there?" of the English girl has now become the colloquial "Hullo Now York."

At the Walker Street office of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company,fifty-five girls handle the outgoing and incoming calls between New York and European points between the Atlantic Seaboard and Australia, Havana and South America. They, belong to the company's foreign service. Several of the girls in this service havo been there since the first radiophone call went through to London. Strange voices have becomo familiar voices. Short conversations, in slack hours, have led to better acquaintance, to intimate confabs. Miss Jones across the Atlantic confides to Miss Smith on this side that she'is going on her vacation. Picture postcards follow this annouueementj and when Miss Jones returns to her post she writes- Miss Smith a long letter telling her about the wonderful trip. According to Miss Ella M. Higgins, in charge of foreign service operators in New York, the London girls are largely responsible for a wanderlust that annually overtakes the New York telephone girl.1 "Each year as vacation time comes round," said Miss Higgins, "our girls begin to talk about the lovely trips their London friends aro planning to take. Each letter that comes to the office describes a different journey under contemplation. Tho English girl is a great traveller as well as a great letter writer. Her letters aro both interesting and informative. They tell

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about trips to Paris and other largo cities, jaunts to various resorts in Bugland, to mountains, seashores, and lakes. Our girls look up these places on the maps and follow their friends by meaus of the picture post cards they scud along at each stage of the journey. It is no longer 'America First,' I'm afraid with our girls. Their imaginations have been stirred by descriptions of foreign scenes. London has ceased to be a strange town, for they have friends there. They are becoming familiar with Paris and other Continental cities. The world, to them, is daily growing smaller."

At Christmas many gifts arrive from across the Atlantic. Painted scarfs, embroidered handkerchiefs, souvenirs, find their way to the fifth floor of the Walker street building. Many of the letters also tell about avo.eations followed in off hours. For the English telephone girl, says her Mew York colleague, is fond of painting, drawing, and sketching. And she sends samples of her work to the friends she has never seen across the Atlantic, but whose voices sho knows well.

Officials of tho telephone company encourage this friendliness between London and New York operators, for they believe it helps the service. Friends salute friends as they pass a call. If static is bad and clients aro fussy, the friend in London does what she can to clear the line for her New York co-worker. No impatience is ever shown by tho London operator, according to those who work with her. Operators in the foreign service work hard. Eight hours, with only fifteen minutes' rest in the morning and fifteen in the afternoon, mean eight hours of careful, preciso linking up of circuits from 3000 to 17,000 miles long. Girls for the foreign service are selected with care. In addition to the regular course of training required of all telephono operators, a month's intensive study is demanded of tho applicant. She "must know the geography of all countries reached by the radiophone she handles. She must know the names of the various exchanges in foreign cities. She must be sufficiently familiar with languages to recognise names and numbers in a tongue not her own. The staff includes Swedish, Finnish, Polish, and Spanish girls, in addition to American girls who speak German, French, Italian, and other languages.