WOMEN POLICE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23954, 2 May 1941, Page 11

WOMEN POLICE

DOMINION APPOINTMENTS LEAD FROM OVERSEAS NOTABLE FIGURE IN ENGLAND Women of Now Zealand will foci every satisfaction at tlie appointment of women police in this country. According to a statement liy the Prime Minister, the Hi. Hon. P. Eraser, 10 are to lie appointed at the outset and their training is to coninience on June 2. Dominion organisations, notably the National Council of Women, have approached successive governments for years on thi> question and the Prime Minister's statement will be something in the nature of a "dream come true." Although New Zealand led the world with women's franchise, she is far behind in respect of women police, for several continental countries have had tliem for years and in England, under the leadership of Commandant Mary Allen, tliey have been a recognised and valued group in the community since 1914. Commandant Mary Allen Commandant Mary Allen has achieved national and international fame as an oiganiser and practical worker in this most important field of women's service. The originator of the women police in Britain, however, was Miss Margaret Dainer Dawson, who had been entrusted

with the task of organising transport for tlie Belgian refugees who poured into England in the early weeks of the Great War. While engaged in this work the urgent need was forced upon her for a body of trained women in uniform, whose bona tides might be recognised at sight. Miss Allen heard by chance of the plan to organise the women police volunteers and offered herself for service at once. Late in November, 191-1, the women police began their work, and Miss Allen, with another, was sent to a town in the Midlands, where a camp of more than 18.000 troops" was established. She soon became one of the chief training officers, and on Miss Damer Dawson's death succeeded her as commandant. Work at Cologne With the end of the Great War wider spheres oi activity opened up for the women whose services had proved so valuable In 1920 Colonel Winter applied for "50 trained and tested fearless women to work with the Royal Irish Constabulary," and in 1923 a call came from the British Army of Occupation in the Rhine provinces. Six British policewomen were at once stationed in Cologne,. under the direction of Commandant Allen, who also suggested and arranged for the training of a number of well-educated German women to assist in their work. Invitations to other countries followed this first international contact, and visits to Paris, Berlin, Geneva, Basle. Vienna, Budapest, Athens, Helsingfors, Stockholm and Copenhagen, the United States, Brazil, Uruguay Alexandria and Cairo, brought her into association with the authorities and social workers in all these places. Her great organising ability was never better shown than in her organisation of women's police forces not only in many cities in Britain but also in foreign countries, to many oi which she acted as adviser and organiser when the question of establishing women police arose.