WOMEN’S JOBS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12646, 2 June 1919, Page 6

WOMEN’S JOBS.

RETURNED SOLDIERS' COMPLAINT. At yesterday's mooting of the Returned .Soldiers’ Association conference tiio general secretary (Mr Douglas Seymour) quoted an anonymous letter ;n an Ashburton journal of May 24 whioa read, inter alia:— “In answer to ‘Returned Soldier's’ letter in last night’s paper I should like to say that there are two sides to every quo,sti*s The returned soldier swops to iKisnw that ho has a sacred right to a first chance in any employment,- What of the girl who' has kept, tlie home fires burning and burning perhaps more brightly than the soldier whoso place she took.. Girls have proved themselves more efficient typistes. stenographers and bookkeepers' than over their male friends did in the past;. And if as a business man I can get more efficient and cheerful service from a girl at a less wage than that sufficient; to keep our lords of creation in cigarettes, then surely I am at liberty employ them. This high berserker talk of ‘ boycott, ’ is so much childishness and foolishness. The soldiers will soon realist' the folly of threats against those who can give them employment or help in many ways- The girl clerk has come to stay; she is more pleasing to our customers with her bright and obliging smile than the grouse and discontent of returned soldiers too war-weary to offer efficient personal service, but "1ways demanding as a right a wage more than equal to that paid to our lady friends.” Mr Seymour said that he knew a few soldiers to whom some of the remarks might apply, hut the letter was the most discreditable he had ever seen published in any newspaper. During the war the Press had refrained from criticising soldiers, but it was an unnatural thing to suppress criticism, and one could have anticipated the time when people should express their opinions freely, hut a statement of the kind published in a reputable newspaper should at least hear the signature of the person responsible for it. A delegate interjected; He is a dirty dog. Another said: I will bet ho was a shirker. Mr Sevmour said that the writer had evidently finished with anv idea of responsibility as far as the soldier was concerned.