WOMEN EXCLUDED
DIPLOMATIC SERVICE
The Duchess of-.Atholl, M.P., agrees with the decision of the British Government not to admit women ,to the Consular and Diplomatic Service (states the "Cape Times"). Her reasons, briefly, are these:— In seaports consuls have to deal with sailors, not always sober, who come to the consular offices with grievances and are "apt to 'become violent and abusive-,if their -grievances are not met." " •
Consuls, posted in - tropical countries, may have to live alone with only male domestics; since the ■ native -women in some countries , are kept in their homes. / ' In recent disturbances in China there had been areas in which consuls were posted from'which it had been necessary for all women and children to remove. This was not ah isolated instance.
As regards the Diplomatic Service it would be impossible to place women in countries where the status of -women was lower than men without a loss of prestige for the Mother Country. •
Her conclusion is "that the inclusion of women in the consular or. diplomatic services would mean that men would get more than their fair share of the posts which are injurious .:to health, or which, on account of their distance from home, too often mean much separation from wife and children." . ' , Viscountess Astor, M.P., regrets the decision of the Government for the following reasons:— . '~
In these critical days ho source of talent should be left untapped for the diplomatic- services. Where aptitude is shown, sex should not be a bar. ; ■
Countries, such as the United, States, who have made the experiment of appointing women diplomats have not found their reception abroad unsatisfactory. "
'As to marriage difficulties—-a number of British consuls and diplomats have foreign wives and the women's influence will always predominate yin marriage relationships.
She 'complains that the committee wliich investigated the position was out of touch with popular feeling and the modern trend of thought.
WOMEN EXCLUDED
Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 32, 6 August 1936, Page 18
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