BOY "KITCHENMAIDS"

Evening Post, Issue 27, 31 July 1935, Page 15

BOY "KITCHENMAIDS"

LACK OF SUITABLE GIRLS

The difficulty in obtaining trained domestic servants is presenting a serious problem to residents in the West End of London, states the "Daily Telegraph."

Families normally employing six, eight, or \more servants have had' to reduce the number because of the growing difficulty-pf securing suitable girls, particularly for kitchen work. Others have left their houses, and gone to live in flats now being: erected in various parts of central London v where they can manage with smaller staffs. Heads of a number of West End servants' registry offices, with whom the question was discussed, agreed that the situation was getting worse, and that the demand for kitchen staffs, particularly, was much greater than the supply. "So many girls come along in the belief that they can begin as parlourmaids or nursemaids, although they have no experience," said the manager of one well-known office. "Such good positions are not open to them without it, but we could place as many as we could get as kitchen and scullery maids, or even as between-maids and nursery-housemaids. "I think teachers in elementary schools could do a' lot more than they do to encourage girls to go into domestic service.", JUBILEE JOBS! Reasons put forward for the objec-tion-to kitchen service were:— Girls think the work is not good enough,- or that it is too arduous; . They prefer daily work so that they can have their evenings free; They would rather work in hotel than house kitchens, so that they can qualify for the dole. It was revealed, in another registry office, that many girls had answered advertisements and obtained places in London just before' the Jubilee. They had their fares paid to London, were able to see the celebrations free, and afterwards gave notice. One registry is endeavouring to meet the existing scarcity by getting boys and youths from the North for kitchen and scullery work. It was stated that the girls from depressed areas were frequently quite untrained for kitchen work. .