EIGHT WOMEN VOLUNTEER

Southland Times, Issue 24598, 21 November 1941, Page 4

EIGHT WOMEN VOLUNTEER

Voluntary Aids In

Middle East

An excellent response has been made in Invercargill to the appeal by the Prime Minister for voluntary aids for service in the Middle East. Eight names have been submitted to the St. John Ambulance Association and Red Cross Society, and it is not expected that there will be any difficulty in filling Southland’s quota of 10 women. It was stated yesterday that there were only 30 fully qualified aids in the Invercargill area and as a number were either below or above the age limits or married, the response already received probably approached 100 per cent, of the available aids. Offers to serve would probably also come from Gore and Riverton to make up Southland’s quota. The women to be selected are required to be between the ages of 23 and 34 years. They must have certificates in first aid, home nursing and a third, probably in hygiene, and must have completed 60 hours’ training in a hospital. The names of the volunteers will be forwarded to Dunedin today for consideration tomorrow. The selection committee will consist of Misses M. I. Lambie (Director of the Nursing Division of the Department of Health), Willis (Matron in Chief of the Army Nursing Service), Banks (matron of the Palmerston North Hospital), Tennent (Red Cross Society), Barltrop (Order of St. John) and a member of the central executive of the Women’s War Service Auxiliary. After selection candidates will be medically examined and will be notified promptly if they are accepted. The Invercargill volunteers are as follows:—Misses Margaret Agnes Cockburn, Mavis Irene Glennie, Janet Isabel Gray, Jean Jamieson, Helen Josephine Rhind, Leocardia Bernice Russell, Agnes Joyce Skinner and Pearl Coatsworth.

TWO DUNEDIN WOMEN NOMINATED (Special) DUNEDIN, November 20. Twenty-seven of the 200 members of the Red Cross and St. John V.A.D.’s who are to go overseas for service in hospitals in the Middle East are to be selected from Otago and Southland volunteers. It was stated today by an officer of the organization that two members of the Dunedin branch of the Women’s War Service Auxiliary had already been nominated for service overseas as part of this scheme and their names had been forwarded to Wellington for approval. Fourteen members of this service will be sent from New Zealand. The two selected from Dunedin are shorthandtypists, and although no information has been made available from Wellington, it is expected that all the women of the auxiliary sent overseas will be well qualified in this respect. REGISTER OF WOMEN BEING PREPARED MAGNIFICENT WORK IN DOMINION (P.A.) TAUPO, November 20. A register of women throughout New Zealand is now being prepared, according to an announcement made by the Director of National Service, Mr J. S. Hunter, at the annual conference of the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation this morning. Mr Hunter also referred to possibilities of the wider use of the services of women in industry, including married women. “I was filled with pride on a recent visit to Auckland to see a number of women working in a munition factory,” said the Minister of Labour, the Hon. P. C. Webb, who also addressed the conference. Many women not engaged in industry before and others retired long ago came back in answer to the nation’s call. Many of them had to leave children with friends to go to a factory. They were sacrificing home life for the needs of the nation. The work being done by the women of New Zealand was magnificent. The Government might have to arrange some form of nurseries where philanthropic women could care for the infants of those doing war work. “We have a huge reservoir to draw on and the services of willing women workers could well be used,” said Mr Webb. “A finer crowd of girls could not have been selected than the 30 who recently went to the Middle East, but their selection caused a storm of protest in the Labour movement. So keen are girls to do worthwhile jobs, particularly beside their brothers and sweethearts overseas, that there was a feeling of resentment, as many of the girls selected come from families who can keep them. This is a reflex of the minds of girls working in industry who could not get away.”