HOW DEEP IT GOES!

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 4 December 1914, Page 5

HOW DEEP IT GOES!

I There is no doubt that the war feel' i--g, «> sum up the soie interest of the : majority of Lsrmsh, Russian French and ifegian people just now/has gon£ &??i deeP) deed that /ts '^pK sious will never be entirely obiiterSST ' It was so at the time o/the Crimea^ and our mothers and fathers neV^^ popped talking of the horrors of SBb IgUit iliiifgi mm ■ tn.s. indeed,, to com* nearer .home, - war is: the one topic of event the little cmldrea--of- places- like Woolloomooloo* ■ wiiere sny. afternoon' is- tw.fc* seen ». ' small raaoousvvciced: urchin; drilling & squad of. ragamuffins, whila sentries of a height of about 4ft. nothing, witk bayonets fixedj, guard the entrance to* the wharves, and a fort on am adjoia- > mg.."kopfae3'"brisifiiig; with,- guns is ia. charge of a swaggeiing swashbuckler aged' about., eight r aumedi wftfi a very small sword and a very larg© sabr©^ These little people will tell you with glee that "Tommies collected nanepene* : for the war," and that "Mary is dras- % mg a^ doll! to be' xsaf-flfidi for the Red Cross." Toeach and all their «ne ideais help.

And yet among all this fine entinisi- j asm is it net remarkable that there> ~ << remains in our midst a curious litt!» - ':■ colony of: dronßS). who,. wMIe they are -5 well able to give and help, and who *4 have every reason to give out of gratitude for the comforts they under * British'rulfej. ntrft only remain idle, but" a are rather contemotuous when they aro^ 1 asked! to, assist. They drive their cara | and amuse themselves and their friend* 1 and all" the while our men are suffer- i ing;.and, again, to come nearer home, the Ked Cross work is often delayed . 1 and the- workers' unduly fatigued because so few cars have been put at their disposal-for the urgent work m hand. 1

One wonders sometimes what these peoole really fesl, and wheiher th«ir contempt? is not wearing a trifle thin. They must feel ashamed at tidies, when everyone else is working, and later- on they will feel their position keenly, for nothing is more sure than that there is ffoing to be two casts among Australian women in future—those who helped, and those who. did not- — just assure as there are going to be two among men—those who volunteered ""or fwisterl in other ways, and those who did nothing. Indeed, there is already a strong feeling anxmo: women and girls who entertain. Said a young girl th& other day: "Well, really, I" don't a«fc any men to the hov«e nowadays unless I know why they didn't enlist or why they are not helping. It's not that tto> r«nt to be bard, and I know rnanv boys who want rc> go but whose plain duty ia. to stay at home; but there aro other* who have not came vm to expectations, ,*nd we are just not asking them to ourhouse." - '"

And so it will be ammigf tV to^ find girls who ■>«<> alr°adv beintr nointM out as "shirkers"; they will find themselves just a little outride the pal© when accounts come to be cast up. War brings to the women of a voting nation like this many lessons, and nrock good as well as sorrow., and it tenches.. -^ove thoroughly than a Kora for the shirkers of both sexes..