WOMEN SAILORS.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3790, 4 July 1917, Page 2

WOMEN SAILORS.

THEIR ANXIETY TO ENLIST.

A curious incident is said to have occurred in New Work, where recruiting stations were bombarded with women anxious to enlist their services for the natidn, but the officials in charge were compelled to almost work overtime in trying to explain to the patriotic women that they could not enlist as regular seamen in the Navy. Sixty applied in one recruiting station in New York in one day, and promptly refused to enlist unless they could be assigned aboard battleships ! The nearest the applicants could get to becoming feminine Jack Tars was doing stenographic work in the Navy Yards, but none of them considered this exciting enough to suit their stirred-up feelings in the crisis. The rush to recruit originated When word was received from Philadelphia that Miss Loretta Walsh had enlisted as yoeman there, causing women to flock to enlist in New York. The next day the number was increased to nearly 200. The applicants were eventually told that opportunities would be provided for accepting their services in some other sphere of national activity. Miss Walsh, who says she feels "just like George Washington," wears a naval uniform, a simply-designed dark blue suit, and proudly carries a cutlass on one hip and a 42-ealibre automatic revolver on the other. "I dent know whether I'm to use these weapons tJo intimidate sluggish enlisters, or wear them just for show," commented Miss Walsh. "But they won't let me an the big battleships," sbe lamented. <■