WOMEN IN WAR

Evening Star, Issue 23832, 12 March 1941, Page 10

WOMEN IN WAR

VARIETY OF WORK AUSTRALIAN EFFORTS There are countless ways in which the women of Australia are helping the national war effort in a voluntary capacity—from working on car engines to sewing buttons on airmen’s uniforms—and each week, the ranks of this large army of unpaid workers are increasing. A Commonwealth Department of information bulletin,, issued in New Zealand by the Australian Trade Commissioner (Mr C, E. Critchley), says that in each Australian State, there is a Women’s National Service registry, under Federal direction. These agencies provide. an opportunity for every woman to enrol herself in some form of voluntary'service. In this war . women’s activities are not confined to attending to the comfort and entertainment of the lighting forces,- though that is as important as ever. Many women have equipped (themselves to- undertake work of a dangerous and responsible.nature in the event of an emergency.

One of the most important organisations is the Women’s Australian National Services, known as the “ WANS,” whose members are trained and fully qualified for efficient service in a national emergency. They constitute a standing army. Their training includes squad drill, physical exercises, first-aid instruction, signalling tuition, A.R.P. work, practical nursing, cooking in army conditions, fire drill, quarter-mastering, and map-reading. There are many similar instructional bodies. Among them arc the Australian Women’s Army Corps, which gives instruction in signalling; the Women’s Auxiliary Training League, the members of which are trained to drive tractors ; the Australian Women’s Legion ; which specialises in transport work, and also has its own cavalry corps and staff of canteen workers. Others are the Women’s Emergency Signalling Corps, the Women’s Auxiliary Fire (Brigade Corps, and the National Emergency Service of Ambulance Drivers. First-aid and A.R.P. classes are held in many cities and towns.

“ Members of the Women’s Air Training Corps learn fabric sewing, wireless adjustment; instrument adjustment, and general maintenance work on aircraft, and members of the Women’s Volunteer Naval Reserve are trained to man small and indispensable boats in time of national emergency.

In Sydney a "Women's Motor. Cycle Messenger Corps is attached to the National Seryice of Ambulance Drivers, and' its members are trained as despatch riders and to assist in evacuation if the need arises. Melbourne has a small cavalry unit, where women are trained to be efficient despatch riders. They must have first aid.certificates and must pass a riding test, and they are taught to be useful in floods, bush fires, and evacuations. “ The training of women for farm work is now regarded as potentially one of the most important of women’s war activities in Australia,_ but at present the scheme is only in its infancy. The Country Women’s Association is strongly encouraging it, and in at least two States —New South Wales and Victoria—it has established training schools where women' receive practical experience in all forms of farm work which it is thought that they arc capable of doing. “ All over Australia there are schemes for training women as fitters, machinists, tracers, draftsmen, mechanics, engineering, and for other occupations, so that if it were found necessary at any time to release largo. numbers of men for more urgent service, there will ho women to step into their places. There are also women’s rifle clubs in manv centres. . . " “ Another side to the war activities of Australia’s women, of course, is the comfort of members of the fighting services. The work of large organisations like the Australian Red Cross Society and the Australian Comforts Fund, with their thousands of voluntary helpers, is well known and widespread, but there are many other bodies, both public and private, performing splendid service which is very often unknown to the public. . . “ The A.I.F. Women’s Association, for instance, has been formed to link together the wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters of men serving with the forces. Afore than 400 families have taken their troubles to the association’s Melbourne office, and a trained sociol worker lias been appointed to help .in finding a solution of the problems which are caused by sickness, debt, bereavement, difficult boys, new., babies, • and

tired mothers in need of a holiday. The association also arranges social meetings among members. " The- Country Women's Association has about # 17,000 women employed in the interests .of local camps' comforts funds in _ Victoria. Separate groups of women visit a Royal Australian Air Force camp in Melbourne once a week and darn socks, sew on buttons, repair uniforms, and do other jobs rather foreign to the average man. Facilities are provided by the Y.M.C.A. "Members of the Sailors and Soldiers' War Widows' Association — women who lost their husbands as a result of the last war—have undertaken to help boys whose fathers fall in the present conflict.."