CALL TO THE COLOURS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16203, 13 April 1916, Page 6

CALL TO THE COLOURS.

TRIBUNALS AT WORK.

FEW EXEMPTIONS GRANTED.

WOMEN FOR MEN'S WORK.

. I Among the moss remarkable tribunals that have ever sat in England are those which have been adjudicating every day en the liability of the individual Englishman to. fight for his country. The first noteworthy feature of the work of the tribunals is the binding measure of compulsion. The very first day Sir E. J. Poynter appealed as president of the Royal Academy to have the secretary (Mr. Lamb) exempted. It was a uplendid test case, and when Mr. Lamb (with all the influence of tho Royal Academy behind him) could only get three months' postponement to get through the work of the next academy, people knew that the tribunals were in earnest. The librarian of the academy has gone to the front; no junior can be promoted, and tho work cannot bo done by a woman; but the tribunal thought academicians themselejjs could do much of tli3 adjudicating on the twelve thousand pictures that usually came forward, and it held its ground. A Mansion House footman was also the subject of an appeal by the Lord Mayor, who wrote that it was essential that the Mansion House arrangements for recruiting should be kept up. Postponement for a month was granted. Tho Lord Mayor afterwards explained that the man was about to undergo an operation to fit him to servo. All tho Mansion House footmen were ready to go at onco.

Twenty Hours a Day. An electrical engineer wanted his cashier exempted. "Can't you do the work yourself?" ask d Sir Vezey Strong. "I might if I won-id twenty hours a day." Sir Yezey: ' Well, lots of people are working twenty hours a day now." The cx-Lord Mayor also demonstrated to a manufacturer of briar pipes mid tinder lighters (who wanted his bookkeeper reserved) that none of these things were essential to tho national welfare. Another firm desired to keep a warehouse' man to handle heavy parcels. " You must deal in lighter parcels," rejoinod Sir Vezoy. "That strong man is the man for the front."

Another class of case which was fairly I frequent was the man who claimed to bo [ doing something for tho public good. An advertising manager aged 37, who had been putting in 70 hours per week as a volunteer fireman, had to go to the colours. A sword-maker of Holborn was assured that swords were not used now, and one per battalion was enough; so he could go to the war himself with an [easy conscience. I Even the War Office appeared as the defendant in some cases. The Army Medical Reserve Depot at Woolwich pleaded for six men who could not be replaced. Under argument it was agreed that women could do all the work but that of the foreman, and all the other men were sent to the colours. ■ Advice to Farmers.

Prejudice against women in certain occupations came out strongly. The owner of a fish restaurant was told that ho must get women. An application to transfer a chartered accountant's managing clerk to the latest group possible was allowed on tho ground that he was indispensable by reason of his expert knowledge of income tax details. Certain members of the firm had enlisted and their places had been taken by women. "But unfortunately we cannot have women chartered accountants. The institute will not allow it."

A silk necktio cutter was convinced that women could not do his work, and a military cap cutter held the same comfortable belief. But both were sent to the colours.

In defiance of the certified occupations on which the defendants have expended so much thought, the tribunal told the farmers quite plainly that they ought to employ women. The military representative mentioned fit Lancaster that 1200 had been starred as farm labourers without any proof that they were experts in ploughing, horse-keeping, or cow-keepine. A market gardener and farmer applied at Cherlscy for his son, aged nineteen, who has been stockman and foreman for four months. When asked if he had ever tried female labour he said: "1 have female labour now." Applicant made a similar application for his shepherd. Asked if lie had tried female labour in that case he heatedly retorted he could not possibly let a woman look after his sheep. Tha son was refused exemption, and temporary exemption was granted to the shepherd. "Can't you get women to milk?" a farmer was asked at Malmesburv, Wiltshire. "I can't get women on the land, even in the summer, _ for such work &s haymaking, let alone in the winter," he replied. "Women are doing it in other counties, and women in Wiltshire should learn to do it," said Sir Audley Neeld.