WASTED WOMAN POWER.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 960, 9 March 1917, Page 4

WASTED WOMAN POWER.

A HINT TO ME, NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN. The following little sketch is from the "Daily Chronicle." Amelia fussed for an unnecessary length of time over my tea-tray. From experience 1 knew her dalliance expressed an insatiable desire to unburden her thoughts. For a few moments I tried to bury my thoughts in my book, but it was impossible to ignore the wistful appeal of Amelia's eager, hopeful glance. "Well?" I inquired. "What is it, Amelia?"

"I'm sick of things!" she exclaimed "I want to do some work! "

I could not suppress a smile at this unexpected remark, for Amelia works from 6 in the morning until late at night. "Good gracious!" 1 said. "Why, you're always working! " "Yes," she agreed, "scrubbing floors, washing dishes, and dusting! I want to do some real work —T want to do my little bit to help the boys 'out there'."

As she spoke I saw her fingers, rough and coarse with work, stray caressingly to her neck, round which was a little locket, engraved with the arms of a famous regiment. "You mean war-work?" I asked.

"Yes," she answered eagerly. "I want to make shells that 'go off' or — or to dig trenches." Amelia's idea of the exact channels into which her energies might best be directed appeared to be a trifle vague. "Why not go into one of the munition factories?" I suggested. "That's just what I want to do," she replied, "but the mistress says if I leave she won't give me a reference." (Life without a treasured reference to Amelia would be a blank indeed.) "It's downright wicked," she continued, "to think of me, strong and healthy, working all day long cleaning loads of little bits of silver, washing clothes that aren't dirty, and waiting on 'her' when she could easily do all the work that's necessary herself.''

"It certainly does seem a waste of energy," I agreed. No amount of loyalty to -the sister I was visiting could on this particular point prejudice my opinion in her favour. "And it's not only me," Amelia went on, "but thousands of other girls too who would be only too glad to do something to help to win the war. Why doesn't someone call up (from the Town Hall registers) all general servants in eight or nine-roomed houses, and housemaids where parlourmaids arc kept, and kitehenmaids and children's nurses from large houses, and ask the ladies of the establishments to employ married women with children, who would be glad of the work?" "An excellent plan, I should think," I murmured while Amelia paused a moment.

"Yes," continued Amelia, who was thoroughly "worked up," as she would have described it, ' and why shouldn't ladies do their bit for the war by working in their own homes, instead of employing young women who could help the country so much better on warwork... . ?'"

Later, on reflection, it seemed to me that Amelia had put her finger upon a very vital spot in the wastage of feminine energy. Certainly there are today thousands of young women employed in comparatively small houses whose services could very well be dispensed with, or, as Amelia had suggested, might be substituted by married women with children.

Man}' of the; women who are participating in this unpatriotic encroachment upon the country's resources have, with wonderful courage, given their husbands, fathers, sons, and sweethearts, have responded nobly to the call for economy, expressed in countless other directions their willingness to come forward and do their part, yet with impunity they employ labour which should be only expended on the direct business of winning the war.

In fairness to them one must assume that thoughtlessness or ignorance of the need for labour, rather than selfishness, is responsible; for surely while the men of Great Britain are offering, gladly, their blood upon the battlefields for the freedom of nations, the women will not hesitate to undertake, the care of those same homes for which precious lives are being laid flown.

It is inconceivable that, while thousands of women are undertaking men's work that is both onerous and uncongenial, other women, the pro\id possessors of these homes that so truly represent England, should express reluctance to perform the duties that are so essentially a woman's.

To a certain extent I am inclined to think the women are not. entirely to blame, for, as one young wife protested when I suggested the services of her maid might better be employed upon the country's work, "every woman is registered.'' Undoubtedly the knowledge that the authorities of this country, through the medium of the National Register taken in 1915, are fully informed of its resources has proved to a very great extent responsible for that "if-we-are-needed-we-shall-be-called" spirit that is endangering the lives of our troops by keeping many a woman worker from the ranks. The remedy lies in the hands of the Government. A careful appraisement of the available labour would reveal many valuable energies expended at present in entirely unproductive spheres. The necessity for compulsory service for women would be mitigated considerably were the very urgent need for the services of every man and woman presented to the thousands who have failed to realise that every additional worker means a speedier conclusion of the war.