THREE GIRLS FINED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 24 August 1944, Page 2

THREE GIRLS FINED

SIT DOWN STRIKE AT HOSPITAL Blenheim, This Day. Three probationers who'staged a sitdown strike at Wairau Hospital were fined £5 by Mr T. E. MaunseH, S.M.. lor failing to comply with a manpower direction. Senior Sergeant Smith said the girls had volunteered for nursing but later sought release on the ground that they had made a mistake in taking up the profession. .Vhen permission was refused they went to Wellington, where they reported to the manpower officer who directed them back to Wairau Hospital. Since then they had refused duty, simply sitting about in the nurses’ home. Upon receiving the summonses they lodged appeals which had not been heard. “You can’t force us to stay at nursing if we don’t want to,” one defendant told the Magistrate. Mr Maunsell: I can do a good many things. I can force you to work for three months in a place very much more uncomfortable than the hospital. Don t dictate to me what I can or can’t do. Your standard of conduct is dis-. gracefully low and your standard of selfishness is correspondingly high. That is my opinion of you.” “Have you ever worked at a job you loathe?” challenged another defendant. The Magistrate: Yes, I have. And 1 could tell you of some others—th,ose young men in the trenches who are giving their lives for their country. But you do nothing for your country. I’m afraid I don’t think much of you as citizens.” —P.A.