SATISFACTORY.

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 3234, 7 May 1917, Page 4

SATISFACTORY.

THE WOMAN AS SOLDI Ell

MILITARY WORK BEHIND THE LINES IN FRANCE.

NEW ASPECT OF THE ERA OF KHAKI. The war has brought into being many different aspects of woman as worker, organiser and general helper, but the greatest innovation of all is Iho woman soldier, recognised by the military authorities, uniformed, living in camps beside the men, under tho same conditions as to food and lodging, and working day in, day out, under strict military discipline (says a London paper.) In past times there were tho vivandieres, who followed tho airmios in Franco all through Napoleon's campaigns, but according to history these women, though plucky and hard-working, were rathor a wild lot, with very little notion of discipline or feminine prestige, who were always ready to hobnob with their soldier comrades.

FIT MEN RELEASED. To-day theso vivandiorea aro placed in llic British Army by regiments of women who attend to tho housekeeping, cooking, and well-being of tho men, but who aro upheld in their work by a keen spirit of patriotism, and bear themselves with military discipline and a full sense of what befits their position as members of a military unit. Now the scope for women soldiers is to be extended on far wider lines, and they are to bo employed with tho Army both here and in Franco in practically every capacity in which they are able to carry out the work, and so release thousands of fit men for service with the regiments.

It has only lately been realised how much useful work women can carry out in that vast organisation, with its network of different sections which constitutes an army on active service. There are kitchens and canteens which women can run quite as well as men. There aro offices and pay departments where the clerical work can be undertaken by the woman accountant or typist overy inch as successfully as by tho malo clerk. Women in these days, thanks to their own energy and determination, are qualified to drive motorcars, and to take charge of technical stores, which means a wide knowledge of bolts and screws and all the thousand-and-one pieces of mechanism that are required for motor-cars, lorries, an<3 army eqtiipment of this type. COMING INTO THEIR OWN.

There is not tho smallest doubt that, had it been suggested that women should undertake work of this kind during the first months of the war, thero would have been a great outcry, and the busybodies would have shaken their wise heads and said it was asking the impossible. Because women had never had a. chance of proving otherwise, the opinion prevailed that if brought into close touch with the soldiery they would prove frivolous, irresponsible, and undisciplined, inefficient workers, and unreliable in every way. Experience has happily proved the contrary. The idea of enrolling women to work in units on military lines originated with themselves. Several women leaders came forward with carefully worked-out schemes, the women quickly offered their services, and in a very little while thero were a number of organisations carrying on useful war work where the women woro uniforms and were supervised on lines of military discipline.

When once it was seen that women could be trusted to work quietly and efficiently their services were rapidly commandeered. One of the first moves made by tho military authorities was to take over the cookery section of the Women's Legion and to establish women as cooks in training and convalescent camps all over the country. It naturally followed that the camp cooks must live in the camps besides the soldiers, and soon the neatly dressed" military c ook in her khaki uniform, and wearing her Women's Legion badge was seen (hard at work preparing the men's food and taking charge of the messes.

STURDY COURAGE. It has been found that putting women in uniform and housing them in huts is immensely successful. The mere fact of wearing uniform inculcates a sense of military discipline. The women are extremely proud of their position, they know that they arc "doing their bit," and are thus able to bo of direct assistance to their menfolk. They show themselves perfectly ready to adapt themselves to novel conditions. Discomforts are treated with a smile. A woman ploughing her way through seas of mud in a camp where the ground 'has become a veritable morass will treat it as a joke. They are obedient to orders, and even the strict rule that prevails in camps where the woman cooks and waitresses are working that no woman in uniform may speak to a soldier within the camp precincts is seldom broken.

Without uniform it would naturally bo impossible to keep control, and the sentries on duty would not be able to distinguish the legitimate workers from strangers, but these battalions of women soldiers can be as easily handled as battalions of drilled men. There is little doubt that the women who go over to France to undertake military work there will prove as successful as their sisters in the camps at home.

There can be no gibes in these days at the woman in uniform. Through her own steadfastness and courage she has won respect from all. The army of women workers has its .recognised place in the defence of the nation and the nation's (rights. It is no longer the woman's duty to sit at home and watch and wait. The call has come for her to be up and do ; ng, to equip horsa'f i> a soldier, and, with a soldier's sense of responsibility and the stern necessity for discipline and obedience to orders, to carry on many kinde of important work in tho very midst of the expedi-

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