HONOURS FOR WOMEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20626, 26 July 1930, Page 21

HONOURS FOR WOMEN.

INVIDIOUS DISTINCTION

The discussion as to what honour Miss Amv Johnson should receive in recognition of her great achievement is not without its entertaining side, says a writer in Time and Tide. It would appear from paragraphs in various quarters that t 10 problem is keeping Lord Thompson awake o' nights, and the suggestion lias been quite seriously made that some special honour "for women only" may have to he invented, since "the authui itics are experiencing a difficulty in finding a suitable award that is applicable to a woman." We had supposed that honours awards were applicable t.« outstanding acts of heroism or of devotion or of service to tho State. Are wo to understand that they .ire only applicable to these acts when performed by men? Miss Johnson undertaking her great adventure after an experience of less than a hundred hours in the air (when she passed over the Channel in her flight she crossed the sea for the first time), and flying in a two-year-old second-hand machine, has forged a new link in the chain between England and Australia, and brought the day when the ordinary flier and passenger regard the journey as a possibility appreciably—very appreciably—nearer. Most certainly she deserves well of her country, and. clearly, to invent a special and peculiar female order to reward a person who has by human standards done an outstandingly courageous and useful act would be a disastrously stupid thing to do. Mr. Bert 11 inkier, in recognition of his flight, received the coveted Distinguished Flying Cross, and that would appear to be a very suitable, award for Miss Johnson. If her flight has the effect of forcing the authorities to realise that ail honours must be equally open to both sexes, site will have done the country an additional service.