SENSE OF HUMOUR

Opunake Times, 23 July 1937, Page 4

SENSE OF HUMOUR

LONDON'S WOMEN POLICE

Scotland Yard is once more advertising for Metropolitan women police, wrote a London correspondent recently. This is not because marriage depletes their ranks. Only one policewoman has left the force to be married during the past two years, and only three since the service was instituted.

So fascinating do policewomen find their work, it appears, that when it comes to the point -they are unable to give it up. Twentysix women have been added to the ranks since September, when it wna decided to increase their number. This brings the present total to 80 and 50 more are needed.

Applications have already been received, in reply to a recent advertisement from many types of women, including- one holding a university degree. Most of these will be discouraged by the stiff requirements. A candidate must have sound heart and lungs, good sight, hearing and speech, fine teeth, clear complexion and to be> free from every defect. But this is not all—she must thave an alert mind and graces of character and disposition, with emphasis on kindliness, tolerance and sense of humour.

Finally, she must know how to wear any type of clothes, from rough country tweeds to the most elegant of full evening outfits. She may have to travel to the slums of Glasgow, to fetch a woman suspect to London, or she may be sent to dine and dancei at a smart Mayfair night club. "The standard is very high," I was told, "and we are strictly maintaining it."