YOUTH TUNES IN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 99, 23 October 1942, Page 6

YOUTH TUNES IN

YOUNG WOMEN & WAR WORK

"The young people of today tune in on a different wave length from you and I," said Miss Elsie Bennet, general secretary of the Auckland Y.W.C.A., in an address to the Auckland Rotary Club on the effect of war upon young women. "We may think," she added, "that we still retain the outlook that belongs to earlier years, but it is not so." It was unfortunate that the present war was separated by only 21 years from the last war, as it placed the responsibility of embarking upon the new struggle on the shoulders of a generation whose experiences and outlook were associated with the 1914-18 conflict. ZEAL FRUSTRATED. Giving conclusions drawn from personal contact with hundreds of girls engaged in war work, Miss Bennet expressed the view that in- practically every instance their dominating thought was: "I've got to do something. I can't fight. What can I do?" Unfortunately, in the early stages, their zeal was frustrated by the dominance of older women, and this they resented. -Then came the formation of services auxiliary to the fighting forces, and the great reservoir of womenpower was successfully tapped.