USE OF BRITAIN’S WOMAN POWER

Southland Times, Issue 24592, 14 November 1941, Page 5

USE OF BRITAIN’S WOMAN POWER

(Rec. 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 13. A new order issued by the Ministry of Labour makes any young woman without home ties liable .to be sent to work anywhere in Britain. A survey will soon be taken of young women in non-essential jobs. They will be replaced by older women. The new order divides women workers into two groups—mobile and immobile. Mobile women workers are classified as those having no children under 14, and those who are not the wives of servicemen and are not doing an essential war job or who have no home ties.

Twelve women wharf labourers, believed to be Britain’s first, signed on to unload a ship at a north-east port because insufficient men were available. Women Home Guard volunteers are resenting the War Office order banning the use of firearms for training. Miss Edith Summerskill, M.P., said: “The War Office cannot crush a spontaneous movement like the Women’s Home Guard. In France the men and women were not prepared. In England the women are going to be prepared.”