WOMEN AND THE WAR.

Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 23 June 1915, Page 4

WOMEN AND THE WAR.

(Contributed.)

" And what does your Majesty think of women?" queried Bourrienne of his master. "Women?" exclaimed Napoleon impatiently, " women? why only fit for rouge and tears!?' A strange and foolish remark from one who boasted of his knowledge of the world of men and women. And a very untrue one, too, it is quite obvious. Probably the women of France counted for rery little when the great Oorsican was winning his astonishing victories. The British military leaders think very differently of the women of our race. Not until this Great War is over shall we fully understand and appreciate the noble part our wotnm have played in this tremendous struggle. They have known the tragedy and glory (such as it is) of this war as much as the men in. the firing line. Few newspapers or journals have sufficiently emphasised the story of their glorious deeds, their heroic self-sacrifice. Lifting up the broken, soiled bodies of our poor fellows in the military hospitals—that demands a larger reserve of courage than the mad charge, the furious assault. Toiling at poor remuneration for years to help to support the maimed returning home in tens of thousands from the War, demand a capacity to endure and to suffer that the men in tho trenches can never know.

To lose a father, a brother, a son, a lover, means more to the women of the Empire than even the suffering of our wounded men, grievous and terrible though that may be. In a million homes all over the Empire our women are quietly working that they might nerve and encourage our men at the front.

But women are not always destined to play a passive part in the great wars of the world. War one day shall become obsolete, a barbarous relic of those days when the nations were weak and foolish. And who is to help in that great change in public opinion that shall make such a state of things possible ?

This is an age of organisation. Is it possible that the women of our race shall not combine one day to guard their dearest interests? Tremendous changes have followed in the social life of Australasia as the result of a political movement on the part of women. Why not even revolutionary changes when the women of Britain and Germany shall be enfranchised ? Are they always going to meekly bear the callous, senseless, and wholesale slaughter of their husbands and their brothers in these man-made wars? Re-salvation with respect to this perplexing problem of war lies with the women of the world.

The Rev. J. W. Yarnall will discuss this subject further on Sunday evening next at the Presbyterian Church, when there will be special music and a special address entitled " The value of a good woman."