WOMEN ENJOY SALUTING

Southland Times, Issue 24484, 11 July 1941, Page 7

WOMEN ENJOY SALUTING

MORE “REGIMENTAL” THAN MEN

I was talking to a Guardsman friend just outside the headquarters of those devoted and energetic women, the W.A.A.F.s, writes a correspondent from London. As we talked a motorcyclist despatch rider drew up. The latter was a woman, in W.A.A.F. private’s uniform, with the usual impressive despatch riding gadgets. She swung off her panting mechanical steed, adjusted various parts of its mechanism, drew forth some official papers, and stepped towards the entrance of her G.H.Q. Standing on the top step was another woman, also in W.A.A.F. uniform, and also a full private. Nevertheless, the private in the despatch riding get-up solemnly saluted the private on the top step, and did so as ceremoniously as though the latter had been a field marshal in full regalia. The salute was reciprocated with equally stiff ritual. Now male privates in the Army, no more than bluejackets in the Royal Navy or aircraftmen in the R.A.F., are not in the habit of exchanging salutes with each other. But they tell me that women, once in uniform are immensely more “regimental” than men. The average man hates saluting. Women just love doing it