GIRLS FOR FORCES

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 51, Issue 3137, 29 June 1942, Page 5

GIRLS FOR FORCES

EMPLOYERS CONSIDERED ESSENTIALITY OF WORK NEW REGULATIONS SHORTLY Altough there is- at present a definite call for girls to join the army and naval services, and also for war industries, employers need feel no apprehension that girls will be indiscriminately taken from their present occupations to the embarrassment of their employers without an opportunity being given to appeal,” stated Mr R. W. Chappell, district manpower officer for the Thames Valley, Waihi, and Coromandel Peninsula districts in Paeroa to-day. “Regulations are to be brought down shortly to deal with the wholesale entry of female workers into the army,” explained Mr Chappell. “Any girl may apply for admission into the forces or war industries, but each case will be fairly considered, and no girl who is doing essential or semi-*essential work for her employer will be permitted to leave her work. All women desiring to serve in the armed forces must enlist through the district branch Of the Women’s War Service Auxiliary. And, on completion, the application forms are forwarded to the district monpower officer by the various committees of the W.W.S.A. The duty of- the district man-power officer is to consider the desirability or otherwise of the girl being accepted into the armed forces, having' regard to the occupation or industry in which she is already employed. • “There are many considerations which have to be taken into account; for example, the essentiality of the work engaged in, the domestic needs of the community, whether the girls would be easily replacable or not, and whether or nor her special training, if any, would not foe more applicable to a vital war industry.

“Girls, too, must not get the idea that they will be given just the work they desire when they join any of the services,” Mr Chappell pointed out. “As far as the army is concerned, it- is understood that girls will be engaged on work best suited to their qualifications. For example, a qualified shorthandtypist is hardly likely to be put on canteen or mess duties, but would foe placed instead as a shorthandtypiste in the army offices.” Mr Chappell said that no girl would be taken from work where she was considered to be or more use in that position than in the services and at present all applications were voluntary.