BRITISH WOMEN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20547, 6 May 1941, Page 11

BRITISH WOMEN

TRIBUTE TO SPIRIT MR. MENZIES SPEAKS SHARING WAR BURDEN aid in Work of men (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 2.20 pun. RUGBY, May 4. The Australian Prime Minister, Mr. R. G. Menzies, who has left Britain on his way home, gave a farewell broadcast in which he paid a special tribute to the spirit of British women in every sphere of war work and in the home.

Mr. Menzies said: “Is it possible to believe that not long ago we called them the weaker sex?

“When this war came with all its stupendous demands oh man-power, what did we find? Women conducting vast organisations, women in the uniform of the navy, the army and the air force, women at the fire brigade stations in blue overalls, always ready, women driving great vehicles, women digging in the fields, women wielding hammers and rivetters in the factories, women at the gefitle work of nursing sick soldiers, wdmfirt working in the hospitals in the rhiddlb of air raids, women doing their turn of fire watching in their own suburban streets as incendiary bombs rain, and last but not least, that forgotten but splendid woman the housewife, who copes with the rationing. “The vast movement of women into "the service of the nation, doing these things hnd 100 others, is spectacular. It marks the beginning of a new era.”