In the latest Dilution of Labour Bulletin this is recorded:

"A GOOD BEGINNING

"A firm in the London and South Eastern district making propellers for aeroplanes has recently begun the employment of women, and the results are exceeding all expectations. As an instance it is reported that five women are now doing the work of scraping, formerly done by six men, with an increase of 70 per cent in output."

The way in which managers, foremen and skilled men have trained and helped the women and work with them cannot be too highly praised—the success of "dilution"—the ability of women to help their country in this way, was only possible through the good will and co-operation of our great Trade Unions and skilled men.

Women supervisors and examiners are trained at Woolwich, and the first of these were found by "Women's Service," and we find women control and manage large numbers of women in the big works extremely well. One girl of twenty-three, the daughter of a famous engineer, is controlling the work of 6,000 women who are working on submarines, guns, aircraft, and all manner of munitions.

One great engineer who believes in women and women's future in engineering has started what we might term an engineering college for women.

He has built a model factory away in the hills "somewhere in Scotland" with four tiers of ferro-cement floors. It is built with the idea of taking 300 women students and eight months after it opened, it had sixty women students. It is a factory entirely for women, run by, and to a large extent managed by women, with the exception of two men instructors. In the ground floor the girls are working at parts of high power aeroplane engines, under their works superintendent, a woman who took her Mathematical Tripos at Newnham College, and was lecturer at one of our girls' public schools. The women rank as engineer apprentices and their hours are forty-four a week. The first six months are probationary with pay at 20/- ($5) a week, and the students are doing extremely well.

"Women are now part and parcel of our great army," said the Earl of Derby, on July 13, 1916, "without them it would be impossible for progress to be made, but with them I believe victory can be assured."



Mr. Asquith, too, has paid his tribute to the woman munition maker and to others who are doing men's work. In a memorable speech on the Second Reading of the Special Register Bill, he admitted that the women of this country have rendered as effective service in the prosecution of the war as any other class of the community. "It is true they cannot fight in the gross material sense of going out with rifles and so forth, but they fill our munition factories, they are doing the work which the men who are fighting had to perform before, they have taken their places, they are the servants of the State and they have aided in the most effective way in the prosecution of the war."

Our munition women are in the shipyards, the engineering shops, the aeroplane sheds, the shell shops, flocking in thousands into the cities, leaving homes and friends to work in the munition cities we have built since the war. When our great arsenals and factories empty, women pour out in thousands. Night and day they have worked as the men have and it has been no easy or light task. We know that still more will be demanded of us, but we think, as our four million men do, that these things are well worth doing for the freedom of the souls of the nations.

In the munition factories that feeling and conviction burns like a flame and the enemy who thinks to demoralize our men and our women by bombing our homes and our workshops finds the workers, men and women, only made more determined.

The women handle high explosives in the "danger buildings" for ten and a half hours in a shift, making and inserting the detonating fuses, where a slip may result in their own death and that of their comrades. Working with T.N.T. they turn yellow—hands and face and hair—and risk poisoning. They are called the "canary girls," and if you ask why they do it they will tell you it isn't too much to risk when men risk everything in the trenches—and sometimes the one they cared for most is in a grave in France or on some other front, and they "carry on."

The Prime Minister paid a tribute to munition makers in one of his speeches when he said:

"I remember perfectly well when I was Minister of Munitions we had very dangerous work. It involved a special alteration in one element of our shells. We had to effect that alteration. If we had manufactured the whole thing anew it would have involved the loss of hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition at a time when we could not afford it. But the adaptation of the old element with a fuse is a very dangerous operation, and there were several fatal accidents. It was all amongst the women workers in the munition factories; there was never a panic. They stuck to their work. They knew the peril. They never ran away from it."



THE PROTECTION OF WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

"Are our faces grave, and our eyes intent? Is every ounce that is in us bent On the uttermost pitch of accomplishment? Though it's long and long the day is. Ah! we know what it means if we fool or slack; —A rifle jammed—and one comes not back; And we never forget—it's for us they gave. And so we will slave, and slave, and slave, Lest the men at the front should rue it. Their all they gave, and their lives we'll save, If the hardest of work can do it;— Though it's long and long the day is."

—JOHN OXENHAM.



CHAPTER VII

THE PROTECTION OF WOMEN IN INDUSTRY

The Ministry of Munitions has a great department devoted to the work of looking after our workers' interests.

This department of the Ministry was established by Mr. Lloyd George. Mr. Rowntree, whose work is so well known, was put in charge.

The health of the Munition Workers' Committee was set up when the Ministry was established with the concurrence of the Home Secretary, "To consider and advise on questions of industrial fatigue, hours of labor, and other matters affecting the personal health and physical efficiency of workers in munition factories and work shops."

Sir George Newman, M.D., is chairman of the committee and the two women members are Mrs. H.J. Tennant and Miss R.E. Squire. Memoranda on various industrial problems have been drawn up by the committee and acted upon—the first being on Sunday labour.

In the early part of the war our men and women frequently worked seven days in the week and shifts were very long for women as for men. Practically no holidays were taken in answer to Lord Kitchener's appeals. The regulations preventing women from working on Sunday had been removed in a limited number of cases. The investigation of the committee in November, 1915, showed that Sunday labor when it meant excessive hours was bad and it did not increase output, that the strain on foremen and managers in particular was very great, and they recommended a modification of the policy.

In a later Memorandum, No. 12, on output in relation to hours of work, very interesting figures were given, practically all showing increased output as a result of shorter hours of labor.

The committee reported in Memorandum No. 5 that it was of the opinion that continuous work by women in excess of the normal legal limit of sixty hours per week ought to be discontinued as soon as practicable, and that the shift system should be used instead of overtime.

A special Memorandum, No. 4, was entirely concerned with the employment of women and dealt with hours, conditions, rest and meals, management and supervision, and it strongly urged every precaution and protection for women.

The Welfare Department meantime had started on its work of securing, training and appointing Welfare Supervisors, Miss Alleyne looking after that branch of the work.

The Department was "charged, with the general responsibility of securing a high standard of conditions" for the workers.

The growth of the work has been enormous. The Ministry of Munitions today has large numbers of Welfare Supervisors with every Government establishment and the controlled establishments have them also. In Government shops they are paid by the Ministry, in controlled establishments by the management and their appointment is notified to the Welfare Department.

The Ministry has issued a leaflet on "Duties of Welfare Supervisors for Women," which is given at the end of this chapter.

It will be seen that the Welfare Worker must be a rather wonderful person. She must be tactful, know how to handle girls, and be a person of judgment and decision. We have succeeded in securing a very large number of admirable women and excellent work is being done. The Welfare Workers are in their turn inspected by Welfare Inspectors and Miss Proud, the Chief Inspector in dangerous factories, who sees the precautions against risk of poisoning from Tri-nitro-toluol, Tetryl, the aeroplane wing dope, etc., are all carried out by the management, has written an admirable textbook on welfare work. The country for this purpose is divided into nine areas, and two women inspectors work in each.

Woolwich Arsenal is one of our great centres of women's work and the Chief Welfare Supervisor there, Miss Lilian Barker, is the most capable woman Supervisor in Britain, a statesman among Supervisors. Any visitor to the Arsenal cannot help being struck by the general impression of contentment, happiness and health of the woman worker there in her thousands. It is rare to see a sickly face among them, even among the girls in the Danger Zone. Miss Barker is constantly adding to her own staff of supervisors and training others for provincial centres. She and her Assistants interview new hands and arrange changes and transfers of women. She enquires into all complaints, advises as to clothing, keeps an eye on the vast canteen organization of Woolwich, and initiates schemes for recreation—notices of whist drives, dances and concerts are constantly up on the boards. The housing of the immigrant workers—no small problem, she and her assistants deal with. They suggest improvements in conditions and are awake to signs of illness or overfatigue. They follow the worker home and look after the young mother and the sick girl and women.

Hostels have been built there and all over the country by the Government and by factory owners, and the Hostel Supervisors have a big and useful work to do.

They are very well arranged with a room for each girl and nice rest rooms, dining rooms and good sickroom accommodations. Rules are cut down to a minimum. Most Supervisors find out ways of working without them.

"Smoking is allowed at this end of the restroom," said one Superintendent, "but since we have permitted this recreation, it seems to have fallen out of favour," which seems to show munition girls are very human.

Hutments have also been built for married couples. Lodgings are inspected and when suitable, scheduled for workers coming to the area. In some cases the management in private factories do not adopt formal welfare workers but get a woman of the right type and put her in charge of the female operatives, with generally excellent results. The value of the influence of this work on our girls cannot be over-estimated—it is an influence of the very best kind, and our experiences in munition and welfare work, every class of women working together, is going to be of great and permanent good.



The professional woman and the girls who flock to London in large numbers for work in Government Departments, must be housed also, and there are many extremely good Hostels. Bedford House, the old Bedford College for Women, is now a delightful Hostel run by the Y.W.C.A., whose work for munition girls deserves very special mention. They had Hostels over the country before the war and have added to these. They have set up Clubs all over the country for the girls in munitions and industry in 150 centres, and these are very much appreciated and used by thousands of girls.

The feeding of the munition worker is another great piece of work. It started, like so many of our things, in voluntary effort. The conditions of the men and women working all night and without any possibility of getting anything warm to eat and drink and, exhausted with their heavy work, made people feel something must be done, and the first efforts were to send round barrows with hot tea and coffee and sandwiches, etc. More and more it was realized that the provision of proper meals for the workers, men and women, was indispensable for the maintenance of output on which our fighting forces depended for their very lives—and the Government, the Y.M.C.A., the Y.W.C.A. and various other agencies, started to establish canteens. The Y.W.C.A. alone in its canteens serves 80,000 meals a week. Large numbers of private firms have established their own canteens.

The Health of Munition Workers Committee reported, in November, 1915, that it was extremely desirable to establish canteens in every factory in which it would be useful. Many canteens existed before the war, but they have been added to enormously and the recommendations of the committee as to accessibility, attractiveness, form, food and service carried out.

The Canteen Committee of the Liquor Control Board who have looked after this work have issued an admirable official pamphlet, "Feeding the Munition Worker," in which plans for construction and all details are given. An ideal canteen should always provide facilities for the worker to heat his or her own food.

The prices are very reasonable, and in most cases only cover cost of food and service, soup and bread is 4 cents—cut from joint and two vegetables, 12 to 16 cents.

Puddings, 2 to 4 cents, Bread and cheese, 3 to 4 cents, Tea, coffee and cocoa, 2 cents a cup,

and a variety is arranged in the week's menu.

The Y.W.C.A. Huts are very popular. In some of them the girls get dinners for 10 cents, and the dinner includes joint, vegetables and pudding.

There are comfortable chairs in them in which girls can rest and attractive magazines and books to read in the little restrooms. The workers in charge of these canteens are educated women and the waiting and service is done by voluntary helpers. There is not only excellent feeding for our workers in these canteens, but there is great economy in food and fuel. To cook 400 dinners together is much less wasteful than to cook them separately, and the cooks in these are generally trained economists.

The children, too, are not forgotten. Our welfare workers follow the young mother home and find out if the children are all right and well taken care of. We have done even more in the war than before for our babies and the infant death rate is falling. We have established excellent creches and nurseries where they are needed.

It is impossible to overestimate the value of all this work in industry. The Prime Minister, speaking last year on this subject, said, "It is a strange irony, but no small compensation, that the making of weapons of destruction should afford the occasion to humanize industry. Yet such is the case. Old prejudices have vanished, new ideas are abroad; employers and workers, the public and the State, are all favourable to new methods. The opportunity must not be allowed to slip. It may well be that, when the tumult of war is a distant echo and the making of munitions a nightmare of the past, the effort now being made to soften asperities, to secure the welfare of the workers, and to build a bridge of sympathy and understanding between employer and employed, will have left behind results of permanent and enduring value to the workers, to the nation and to mankind at large."

I am no believer in the gloomy predictions of industrial revolutions after the war. We will have revolutions—but of the right kind and one thing has been clearly shown, that the workers of our country are not only loyal citizens but realize every issue of this conflict as vividly as anyone else. On their work, men and women, our Navy, our Army and our country, have depended—and they have not failed us in any real thing.

MINISTRY OF MUNITIONS.



DUTIES OF WELFARE SUPERVISORS FOR WOMEN.

(Sometimes called EMPLOYMENT SUPERINTENDENTS.)



NOTE.—It is not suggested that all these duties should be imposed upon the Employment Superintendent directly she is appointed. The size of the Factory will to a certain extent determine the scope of her work, and in assigning her duties regard will of course be had to her professional ability to cope with them.

These officers are responsible solely to the firms that employ them, and in no sense to the Ministry of Munitions.



The experience which has now been obtained in National and other Factories making munitions of war has demonstrated that the post of Welfare Supervisor is a valuable asset to Factory management wherever women are employed. Through this channel attention has been drawn to conditions of work, previously unnoted, which were inimical to the well-being of those employed. The following notes have, therefore, been prepared for the information of employers who have not hitherto engaged such officers, but who desire to know the position a Welfare Supervisor should take and the duties and authority which, it is suggested, might be delegated to her.

POSITION.

It has generally been found convenient that the Welfare Supervisor should be directly responsible to the General Manager, and should be given a definite position on the managerial staff in connection with the Labour Employment Department of the Factory. She is thus able to refer all matters calling for attention direct to the General Manager, and may be regarded by him as a liaison between him and the various Departments dealing with the women employees.

DUTIES.

The duty of a Welfare Supervisor is to obtain and to maintain a healthy staff of workers and to help in maintaining satisfactory conditions for the work.

In order to obtain a staff satisfactory both from the point of view of health and technical efficiency, it has been found to be an advantage to bring the Welfare Supervisor into the business of selecting women and girls for employment.

I. THE OBTAINING OF A HEALTHY STAFF.

Her function is to consider the general health, physical capacity and character of each applicant. As regards those under 16 years of age, she could obtain useful advice as to health from the Certifying Surgeon when he grants Certificates of fitness. The Management can, if they think fit, empower her to refer for medical advice to their panel Doctor, other applicants concerning whose general fitness she is in doubt. This selection of employees furnishes the Welfare Supervisor with a valuable opportunity for establishing a personal link with the workers.

Her function is thus concerned with selection on general grounds, while the actual engaging of those selected may be carried out by the Overlooker or other person responsible for the technical side of the work. In this way both aspects of appointment receive full consideration.

The Management may find further that it is useful to consult the Welfare Supervisor as to promotions of women in the Factory, thus continuing the principle of regarding not only technical efficiency but also general considerations in the control of the women in the Factory.

II. THE MAINTAINING OF A HEALTHY STAFF.

The Welfare Supervisor should ascertain what are the particular needs of the workers. These needs will then be found to group themselves under two headings:

(a) Needs within the Factory—Intramural Welfare.

(b) Needs outside the Factory—Extramural Welfare.

INTRAMURAL WELFARE.

I. SUPERVISION OF WORKING CONDITIONS.

The Welfare Supervisor may be made responsible for the following matters:

(a) General behaviour of women and girls inside the factory.—While responsibility for the technical side of the work must rest with the Technical Staff, the Welfare Supervisor should be responsible for all questions of general behaviour.

(b) Transfer.—The Welfare Supervisor would, if the health of a woman was affected by the particular process on which she is engaged, be allowed, after having consulted the Foreman concerned, to suggest to the Management the possibility of transfer of the woman to work more suited to her state of health.

(c) Night Supervision.—The Welfare Supervisor should have a deputy for night work and should herself occasionally visit the Factory at night to see that satisfactory conditions are maintained.

(d) Dismissal.—It will be in keeping with the general suggestions as to the functions of the Welfare Supervisor if she is consulted on general grounds with regard to the dismissal of women and girls.

(e) The maintenance of healthy conditions.—This implies that she should, from the point of view of the health of the female employees, see to the general cleanliness, ventilation and warmth of the Factory and keep the Management informed of the results of her observations.

(f) The provision of seats.—She should study working conditions so as to be able to bring to the notice of the Management the necessity for the provision of seats where these are possible.

II. CANTEEN.

Unless the Factory is a small one it would hardly be possible for the Welfare Supervisor to manage the canteen. The Management will probably prefer to entrust the matter to an expert who should satisfy the Management in consultation with the Welfare Supervisor on the following matters:—

(1) That the Canteen provides all the necessary facilities for the women workers; that is to say, suitable food, rapidly and punctually served.

(2) That Canteen facilities are provided when necessary for the women before they begin work so that no one need start work without having taken food.

(3) That the Canteen is as restful and as comfortable as possible so that it serves a double purpose of providing rest as well as food.

III. SUPERVISION OF AMBULANCE RESTROOM AND FIRST AID.

While not responsible for actually attending to accidents, except in small Factories, the Welfare Supervisor should work in close touch with the Factory Doctor and Nurses. She should, however, be responsible for the following matters:—

(1) She should help in the selection of the Nurses, who should be recognised as belonging to the Welfare staff.

(2) While not interfering with the Nurses in the professional discharge of their duties, she should see that their work is carried out promptly and that the workers are not kept waiting long before they receive attention.

(3) She should supervise the keeping of all records of accident and illness in the Ambulance Room.

(4) She should keep in touch with all cases of serious accident or illness.

It would further be useful if she were allowed to be kept in touch with the Compensation Department inside the Factory with a view to advising on any cases of hardship that may arise.

IV. SUPERVISION OF CLOAK-ROOMS AND SANITARY CONVENIENCES.

The Welfare Supervisor should be held responsible for the following matters:—

(1) General cleanliness.

(2) Prevention of Loitering.

(3) Prevention of Pilfering.

The Management will decide what staff is necessary to assist her, and it should be her duty to report to the Management on these matters.

V. PROVISION OF OVERALLS.

The Welfare Supervisor should have the duty of supervising the Protective Clothing supplied to the women for their work.

EXTRAMURAL WELFARE.

The Welfare Supervisor should keep in touch with all outside agencies responsible for:—

(1) Housing.

(2) Transit facilities.

(3) Sickness and Maternity cases.

(4) Recreation.

(5) Day Nurseries.

In communicating with any of these agencies it will no doubt be preferable that she should do so through the Management.

III. RECORDS.

A. The Welfare Supervisor should for the purpose of her work have some personal records of every woman employee. If a card-index system is adopted, a sample card suggesting the necessary particulars which it is desirable should be kept by Welfare Supervisors is supplied to employers on request.

B. The Welfare Supervisor should have some way of observing the health in relation to the efficiency of the workers, and if the Management approved this could be done:

(a) By allowing her to keep in touch with the Wages Department. She could then watch the rise and fall of wages earned by individual employees from the point of view that a steady fall in earnings may be the first indication of an impending breakdown in health.

(b) By allowing her to keep in touch with the Time Office she should be able to obtain records of all reasons for lost time. From such records information can be obtained of sickness, inadequate transit and urgent domestic duties, which might otherwise not be discovered. Here again, if a card-index system is adopted a sample card for this purpose can be obtained from the Welfare and Health Section on request.

(c) By keeping records of all cases of accident and sickness occurring in the Factory. Sample Ambulance Books and Accident Record Cards can also be obtained from the Welfare and Health Section.



"THE WOMEN'S LAND ARMY"

"If it were not for the women, agriculture would be at an absolute standstill on many farms in England and Wales today."

—President of the Board of Agriculture.



CHAPTER VIII

"THE WOMEN'S LAND ARMY"

The Land Army of Women, which now numbers over 258,300 whole and part-time workers, has done splendid work. For some years before the war women had been very little used on the land in certain parts of England and Wales. In Scotland and in some of the English counties there had always been, and still were, quite fair numbers of women on the land.

Within eighteen months of the outbreak of war, about 300,000 agricultural laborers had enlisted and the work had been carried on with difficulty by the farmer in the first year of the war. The farmer secured all the labor he could, old men returned to help, and the army released skilled men temporarily, from training, to help. Soldiers were used in groups for seasonal work, the farmer paying a good rate for them. Groups of women were also organized for seasonal work by various voluntary organizations, two of these being the Land Council and the Women's National Land Service Corps. The Women's Farm and Garden Union also did good work. The Land Service Corps made one of its most important objects the organization of village women into working gangs under leaders. One interesting piece of work undertaken by the Corps last year was finding a large number of women for flax-pulling in Somerset. This the Flax-Growers' Association asked them to do as sufficient local labor could not be raised. The War Agricultural Committee made all the local arrangements. This was pioneer work of great value and importance as flax is essential in the making of aeroplane wings.

The Corps sent a group of 100 women under competent gang leaders. The workers were housed in an empty country house and the War Office provided bedding. The Y.W.C.A. undertook the catering at the request of the Corps. The work, which was a great success, consisted in pulling, gating, wind mowing, stocking and tying flax.

The Corps has already been asked to undertake this again next year. Owing to the Russian troubles and the closing of the Port of Riga, it will be necessary to put many more hundreds of acres under cultivation and it is probable four or five times as many women will be needed next year.

Some of the Corps members are doing good work in Army Remount Depots, working in the stables and exercising the horses. One of the latest interesting developments of women's work is in the care of sick horses, carried out in the Horse Hospital in London.

Within nine months of the outbreak of war, it was clear we must secure help for the farmers, in order to enable them to do their work. As the submarine menace developed, and the supply of grain in the world was affected by the numbers of men taken away from production, it was clear we must try to grow more food.

Our grain production at the best was only twelve weeks of our supply, and even to keep up to that seemed to be a problem.

It was clear that in agriculture, as in so many other things, women must fill up the ranks, and in the first official appeal of the Government for additional woman labor, the land had an important place.

Lord Selborne, President of the Board of Agriculture, drew up a scheme for the organization of agriculture throughout the country. It consisted of War Agricultural Committee set up in each county who look after production, use of land, procuring use of motor machinery, etc., and of Women's Agricultural Committees. The latter undertake the organization of securing women workers for the land, choosing them, and arranging for training and placing out.

The voluntary groups of women who have been working at the problem in the war are now practically all merged in the Board of Agriculture's organization. The Women's Branch of the Food Production Department now controls and arranged the whole work and Miss Meriel Talbot is the able chief.

The Women's Land Corps, like the other organizations, was prepared to be merged in the new Land Army of the Board and to cease to exist as a separate organization. Its members were willing to become part of the new Land Army.

The Board found there was a distinct need for a voluntary association which would continue to enroll women, who could not sign on for the duration of the war, and who were able to forego the benefits of free training, outfit and travelling given under the Government scheme. Over 100 members of the Corps did enroll and the original Corps members do not require to appear before the local Selection Committees nor to submit references, which marks the Board's confidence in the Corps.

Many of the Corps Workers are now organizing Secretaries for the Counties or Assistant Secretaries, or are travelling Inspectors under the Board of Agriculture.

The Corps still organizes the supply of temporary workers for seasonal jobs such as potato dropping, hoeing, harvesting, fruitpicking, potato and root lifting, etc., done by groups under leaders. The work of organizing in the Counties is carried out by the appointment of a woman as District representative. She is responsible for a general supervision of the work in all the villages in her district. Each village has a woman to act as Registrar and her duty (with assistants, if necessary) is to canvass all the village women and girls for volunteers for whole and part time work, and for training, and to canvass the farmer to find out what labour he needs, and in the beginning they had to induce him to use women. She puts the farmer and the women suitable for his needs in her own district, in touch with each other, and passes to the District Representative and to the Employment Exchanges the names of all women qualified to help and not placed, and of those willing to train.

All these committees, registrars and representatives are honorary workers. The Board of Agriculture appoints to each County for work with the committee a woman Organizing Secretary, and assistant also if necessary.

The Board of Agriculture, working through the Employment Exchanges and under the direction of their women heads, arranged a series of meetings and work of propaganda by posters and leaflets throughout the whole country early in 1916.

The Representatives and Registrars organized the meetings to which the farmers and the women were invited, and the whole scheme was explained. These were very frequently held in the market towns on market day and the farmer and his wife came in to hear after the sales. We had to assail the prejudices of some of our farmers pretty vigorously and of the women, too. We found the women who volunteered best for land work were in the class above the industrial worker, and that the comfortable and well educated woman stood its work admirably.

The farmers were stiff to move in some cases and especially disliked the idea of having to train the women. "They weren't going to run after women all day—they had too much to do to go messing round with girls!" This objection was met by the Board of Agriculture arranging training centres in every county. Some of the training was done at the Women's Agricultural Colleges and among places that arranged training very early were the Harper Adam's College in Shropshire (Swanley); Garford (Leeds); Sparsholt (Winchester); The Midland Agricultural Training College (Kingston), and Aberystwith.

The Women's Agricultural Committee have arranged a great many training centres at big farms and on the Home farms of some of our estates.

The girls volunteering for training must be eighteen years of age. They are interviewed as to suitability and references by the Selection Committee. They must have a medical certificate filled in by their own doctor or by one of the committee's doctors.



On being passed, they go to the training centre, the travelling expenses being paid by the Board. Outfit is free and the uniform is a very sensible one of breeches, tunic, boots and gaiters or puttees, and soft hat, breeches, etc., cut to measure for each girl. Training and maintenance are free and there is always an instructor on the farm in addition to the farmer and his workers. The travelling to the post found, is again paid by the Government, and if work is not found at once, on completion of training, maintenance is paid till it is.

The training is generally of four to six weeks' duration and in some cases longer, and over 7,000 women have been trained in this way and placed.

Appeals for land recruits were made in February, 1916, and in January and April, 1917, when the Women's National Service Department asked for 100,000 women.

The Land Army women after three months' service receive an official armlet—a green band with lion rampant in red and a certificate of honour. The Land women are the only women who receive an armlet—the munition girl wears a triangular brass brooch with "On war service."

To induce the conservative farmer to try the women, exhibitions of farm work were arranged in different part of the country with great success, and the girls showed they could plough, and weed and hoe and milk and care for stock, and do all the farm work, except the heaviest, extremely well.

The War Office in its official memorandum of 1916 gives a long list of the farm and garden work in which women are successfully employed, and they have been particularly successful in the care of stock.

The farmer who used to declare he would never have a woman and that they were no use, and who has them now, is always quite pleased and generally cherishes a profound conviction that the reason why his women are all right is because he has the most exceptional ones in the country.

Housing the worker and especially the groups for seasonal work has been a problem, but it has been done and the feeding of groups well has been managed, too.

The housing conditions for the girl going to work whole-time are investigated by the Board organizer, and the representatives of committee. Very frequently a small group of girls have a cottage on the farm.

The Inspectors of the Board are in charge of three counties each and look after all conditions.

The girls are now being trained to drive the motor tractors for ploughing, and for women who understand horses there is at present a greater demand than supply.

The Women's Branch of the Board is also at this time appealing for well-educated women to aid in Timber Supply for two pieces of work—measuring trees when felled, calculating the amount of wood in the log, and marking off for sawing, and as forewomen to superintend cross-cutting, felling small timber and coppice and to do the lighter work of forestry.

Girls and women are in market gardens and on private gardens in very large numbers. The King has a great many women in his gardens and conservatories. Most estates are growing as many vegetables as possible to supply the many hospitals and the Fleet, and girls are helping very much in this. A great deal has been done by work in allotments, plots of land taken up by town dwellers and cultivated. In one part of South Wales alone 40,000 allotments have been worked and the allotment holders are organizing themselves co-operatively for the purchase of seed, etc. We have Governmental powers now not only to enable Local Authorities to secure unused land for allotments, but to compel farmers to cultivate all their ground. We have fixed a price for wheat for five years, and a minimum wage for the agricultural man and woman.

The girls on the land improve in health and increase in weight. The work is not only of supreme usefulness to the country—we have the submarine ceaselessly gnawing at our shipping and making our burden heavier—so we must produce everything possible. It has improved the physique of our girls—they like it, and many will permanently adopt it. Our Board of Agriculture is also encouraging, for the benefit of the country woman, the formation of Women's Institutes, like those in Canada and America.

In the Lord Mayor's Procession in London, on November 9, 1917, with the men-in-arms of all our great Commonwealth of Nations, with the Turks and the captured German aeroplanes and guns, the munition girls and the Land girls marched. No group in all that great array had a warmer welcome from our vast crowds than our sensibly clothed, healthy, happy and supremely useful Land girls.



WAR SAVINGS—THE MONEY BEHIND THE GUNS

"You cannot have absolute equality of sacrifice in a war. That is impossible. But you can have equal readiness to sacrifice from all. There are hundreds of thousands who have given their lives, there are millions who have given up comfortable homes and exchanged them for a daily communion with death. Multitudes have given up those whom they loved best. Let the nation as a whole place its comforts, its luxuries, its indulgences, its elegances, on a national altar, consecrated by such sacrifices as these men have made."

—THE PRIME MINISTER.

"Deep down in the heart of every one of us there is the spirit of love for our native land, dulled it may be in some cases, perhaps temporarily obscured, by hardship, injustice and suffering, but it is there and it remains for us to touch the chord which will bring it to life; once aroused it will prove irresistible."

—Sir R.M. KINDERSLEY, K.B.E.



CHAPTER IX

WAR SAVINGS—THE MONEY BEHIND THE GUNS

To win the war, we must save. There is no task more imperative, no need more urgent, and there is no greater work than the work of educating the peoples of our countries, and inducing them to save and lend to their Governments.

The first Government Committee set up in Britain to do propaganda work for war loans was established shortly after the war under the title of the "Parliamentary War Savings Committee." It did some propaganda for the early war loans. At the same time a very interesting group of people associated with the "Round Table," and including in it many of our most able financiers and economists—such men as the future chairman of the National War Savings Committee, Sir Robert M. Kindersley, K.B.E.; C.J. Stewart, the Public Trustee; Hartley Withers, Lord Sumner, T.L. Gilmour, Theodore Chambers (now Controller of the National War Savings Committee), Evan Hughes (now Organizer-in-Chief), Lieut. J.H. Curle, Countess Ferrers, Basil Blackett, C.B.; William Schooling and Mrs. Minty, Hon. Sec. Excellent articles were written, leaflets published and meetings held at which many of us spoke throughout the country, and valuable work was done towards educating groups of useful people in the country.

In 1915 a committee was appointed by the House of Commons to go into the whole question of Loans and Methods. The committee was presided over by Mr. E.S. Montagu, and its findings were of great interest. It advised the immediate setting up of a committee whose task it would be to create machinery by which the small investor might be assisted to invest in State Securities, and secondly, to educate the country as a whole on the imperative need of economy. The Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury set up the National War Savings Committee in March, 1916, and in April, 1917, it became a Government Department. The first chairman was George Barnes, Esq., M.P., but very soon the chairmanship was taken by Sir Robert Kindersley, a director of the Bank of England, who has spent himself unceasingly in his great task.

The committee started its work with a very small staff, Mr. Schooling being one of the original half-dozen in it, and the schemes and methods of work were evolved. It works in its organization by setting up committees. The County is the biggest unit and the Hon. Secretary of the County works at setting up Local Committees, which are established in towns with under 20,000 of a population, and we put a group of parishes together in rural districts under one Local Committee. All towns, cities and boroughs over 20,000 population are set up by Headquarters and have Local Central Committees. There are now in England and Wales over 1,580 of these committees. Scotland is worked by a separate committee. Linked up to these committees and represented on them, the War Savings Associations work, and there are now altogether over 40,000 of these with a weekly subscribing membership of over 7,000,000 people.

[Illustration: 6 REASONS Why YOU Should Save

1. Because when you save you help our soldiers and sailors.

2. Because when you spend on things you do not need you help the Germans.

3. Because when you spend you make other people work for you, and the work of every one is wanted now to help our fighting men to win the war, or to produce necessaries and to make goods for export.

4. Because by confining your spending to necessaries you relieve the strain on our ships and docks and railways and make transport cheaper and quicker.

5. Because when you spend you make things dearer for everyone, especially for those who are poorer than yourself.

6. Because every shilling saved helps twice, first when you don't spend it and again when you lend it to the Matron.

POSTER ISSUED BY NATIONAL WAR SAVINGS COMMITTEE]

The committees also did the propaganda work for the January-February Loan of 1917, when five billion dollars was raised (L1,000,000,000) and over eight million people (out of our population of forty-five millions) subscribed to the loan.

The work of the committees was admirable at that time and assisted materially in the success of the loan.

The National War Savings Committee was also asked by Lord Devonport in April to assist the Ministry of Food by doing, through its committees, a great food-saving propaganda. This request was made, because, it was explained, the War Savings Committees are the best organized and most thoroughly democratic Government organization in the country. This propaganda was also done with marked success. In autumn of this year the committees have done an extensive campaign of education, and of work to strengthen and enlarge their associations, and also to push the sale of the new War Bonds.

The Treasury's policy now is to raise all the money needed by the wisest borrowing from the people—day by day borrowing.

The entire work of the committees and associations is done voluntarily—nothing is paid in the whole country for the work, and the only charge is Headquarters Staff and propaganda expenses. The County Secretaries are in most cases Board of Education Inspectors whom the Board has generously allowed to help.

The War Saving Association is the body that sells the War Savings Certificates, which are very much like the American ones. These are also sold at all Post Offices and Banks. They cost 15/6 each, and in five years from date of purchase are worth L1. The interest in the fifth year is at the rate of L5.4.7 per cent. The interest begins at the end of the first year and the certificates can be cashed at any time at the Post Office with interest to the date of cashing. The War Savings Certificate has the additional advantage that its interest is free of income tax, and in a country where income tax begins above L120 ($600), and is then at rate of 2/3 in L1 (over 10 per cent) on earned income and 3/. on unearned, its advantage is very clear. The interest does not need to be included in income returns—but no one may buy more than 500 certificates. It is a specially good paying security intended only for the small saver.

The War Savings Associations can be set up by any group of people, ten or upwards, who wish to save co-operatively. They must establish a committee, small or large. They must appoint a Secretary and Treasurer and then apply for recognition to their Local Committee, or if there is not one, to the National Committee. They are given an affiliation certificate by their committee and receive free all the books, papers, etc., necessary for carrying on an association. These are all supplied by the National Committee to Local Committees.

The 40,000 Associations are in the Army, Navy, Munition Works, Government establishments, Railways, Banks, Mines, Churches, Shops, social groups, clubs, men's and women's organizations and 10,000 are in the schools. The schools, where we receive subscriptions down to 2 cents have done wonderful work and the teachers have done a great deal to make our movement what it is. We find the children do the best propaganda in the homes. One teacher, after explaining to his children what it all meant in the morning, in the afternoon had dozens of subscriptions, and among them a sovereign which had been clasped tightly in a hot little hand for a mile and a half's walk. The little boy said, "I told Mother about it and she gave me that for fighting the Germans."

Our Associations have unearthed piles of gold, one village association alone getting in L750 in gold ($3,750). Old stockings have come out and one agricultural laborer brought nine sovereigns to one of our Secretaries one night, and asked her to invest it to help the soldiers. She said, "Why did you bring it to me?" and he said, "Because its secreter than the Post Office." And the Association has the advantage that all its affairs are confidential, and though figures and amounts are known, no single detail need be.

The schemes are two and apart from schools, the minimum weekly subscription is 12 cents. There is a Bank Book scheme and a Stamp scheme in which the member holds a card which takes thirty-one 12-cent stamps, and when filled up is handed in to the Secretary and a War Savings Certificate is received.

The financial advantage to the members of forming an Association is quite easy to understand. Every week the takings are invested by the Secretary (using a special slip given by the National Committee) in War Savings Certificates, so that when members finish subscribing for a certificate, instead of getting one dated the day they finished paying for it, as it would be if they saved by themselves, the Secretary has a store of earlier dated certificates on hand, and the member receives one of these.

This works out quite fairly if one rule is observed—never give any one a Certificate dated earlier than the first week they started paying for it.

The people of England needed a great deal of education in war saving. We had to fight the strongly held conviction that of all sins the most despicable is "meanness," and that too much saving may seem mean.

No Englishman will ever really admit he has any money, and he was inclined to question your right to talk about the possibility of his having some—and your right to tell him what to do with it, supposing he had any. Some of them were a little suspicious that it was the workers we were talking to most—it was not—and some of them were not quite sure they wanted their employers to know how much they saved. That is entirely obviated by the men running their own associations. Other people told you the people in their District never did, could, or would save and were spending their big wages in the most extravagant way—that pianos and fur coats appealed far more than war savings certificates. The official people in the towns when we approached them about conferences said much the same in some cases, but, yes, of course, you could come and have a conference and the Mayor would preside and you could try. And you did, and in six months they had dozens of associations and thousands of members and had sold some thousands of certificates. We sell about one and a half million certificates a week and have sold about 140 millions since March, 1916. The appeal that won them was not only the practical appeal of the value of the money after the war for themselves, to buy a house, to provide for old age, to educate the children. The strongest appeal was the patriotic one. Save your money to save your country. Throw your silver bullets at the enemy. We have not been content to say only "save," we have tried to educate our people on finance and economics. We have tried to show them that no country can go on in a struggle like this unless it conserves its resources—not even the richest countries. We have tried to appeal to the spirit behind all these things and our Chairman in one of his admirable speeches said:

"It is upon these simple human feelings of loyalty, comradeship and patriotism that the great War Savings Movement is founded. Because of the strength of this foundation I feel convinced that we shall succeed in the great national work we are setting out to perform. However difficult our task may prove, however serious the times ahead, this spirit will carry us safely and triumphantly through everything, and in the end we shall find ourselves not weakened but strengthened on account of these same difficulties which we shall most surely overcome."

The problem before us is the problem of finding ten times the amount of money we did before the war for National purposes. We are spending over $30,000,000 a day. By our taxations, which includes an 80 per cent tax on excess profits, we are raising over 25 per cent of our total expenditure. We have met some other part of our expenditure in the three years of war by using our gold reserve very heavily; a great deal of it in payments in America, where you now possess more than a third of the gold of the entire world. We have also used a portion of our securities, our capital wealth and past savings, and we have had to borrow heavily. Our National Debt is now L4,000,000,000. It was L700,000,000 at the outbreak of war. L1,000,000,000 has been lent to our Allies and the Dominions.

Numbers of people have an impression that Governments can find money. They can, to a certain extent, but only in a very limited way, without great harm. There is in this creation an addition to the buying power of the community, but if everybody goes on spending no addition to the productive power, so it only creates high prices and hardship. The inflation of currency caused by it is a risk and an evil. The sound way is to get the money by taxation, from resources and in real voluntary loans.

America's burden is very much the same as our own, and the need here also of voluntary saving and lending to the extent of more than half the expenditure is clear. America, like ourselves, is very wisely trying to democratise its war loans. Nothing is wiser or sounder or more calculated to make progress, and the changes after the war which will come, sound and steady than widely-spread, democratically-subscribed loans. These vast debts will have to be paid by the ability, productiveness and work of all, so it is in the highest degree desirable that the money and interest to be paid back should go out to every class of the community—and not only to small sections. It is well to remember, too, that the country that goes to the peace table financially sound is in a position to make better terms.



But the purely financial side of war savings is not the most important one. We talk in terms of money but the reality is not money but goods and services. The problem before our Governments and the problem that cannot be left to our children (though the debts incurred in securing the credits may be) is the problem of finding every day over $30,000,000 worth of material and labour for the struggle. War savings among the people is not only essential to secure the money needed—it is far more essential from the point of view of securing the cutting down of the consumption of goods and labour by our peoples.

Economists in peace time argue over what is termed "luxury" expenditure, the wasteful expenditure of peace. War expenditure may be correctly termed wasteful to a very great extent, and no country can carry both of these expenditures and remain solvent. Luxury expenditure should be entirely eliminated and the material and labour which was absorbed by it should go into the war. If this could be done completely, little damage would be done to the nation's economic position. The thing to be clearly realized is that all the productive effort of the nation is needed for three things—the carrying on of the war—the production of necessaries and the manufacture of goods for export. Every civilian who uses material and labour unnecessarily makes these tasks harder and goes into the markets as an unfair competitor of the Government. Every man and woman who saves five dollars and lends it to their country give their country what is far more important than the five dollars. They transfer to the Government the five dollars worth of material and labour they could have used up if they had spent it on themselves and that is its real value. This means the needful purchases of the State are substituted for, instead of added to, the purchases of the civilian.

Further, the influence of economy in preventing undue inflation of currency and consequent high prices should be realized. A certain amount of high prices in war is inevitable but if civilians buy extravagantly, competition becomes intense and prices rise beyond all need. The supplies are limited—in our case that is greatly added to by the submarine menace—and the demands of the Government are enormous. The competition between the Government and the people grows more and more intense. Prices go still higher. The Government pays more than it should and so do the people. Higher wages are demanded with consequent higher prices, and so you get a vicious circle that gets more and more dangerous. If the civilian will relieve this pressure by demanding less, and cutting down his expenditure, prices will become more reasonable and the cost of the war less.

The chief difficulty in time of war is to make people realize the need of economy when they have, as our people have, more money than ever before, when enormous sums of money pour out ceaselessly to the people from the Government. They have to realize the fundamental difference between peace prosperity and war prosperity. Peace prosperity comes from the creation of wealth. War prosperity comes from the dissipation of wealth—the use of all resources—the pledging of credits. It is just as if we, as individuals, to meet a personal crisis, took all our personal savings and borrowed all we could and proceeded to spend it. The wise man or woman will save all of it they can and realize that every unnecessary dollar spent helps the enemy. No civilian in a struggle of this kind has any moral right to more than necessary things. We want every man and woman to have all they need for their efficiency. We would not say for one moment that every one can save, and money spent on clothing and feeding the children and keeping the home comfortable is well spent, but nothing should be wasted.

The standard in this matter should be set by the rich, on whom rests the greatest responsibility, moral and social. It is impossible to expect workers to save if they see luxury and extravagance everywhere round them. One cannot too strongly say that.

The civilians who work hard to produce, who have done heavy toil in munitions and industry, and receive good wages and then go out and spend it lavishly might just as well have slacked at their work. The ultimate effect is the same. They have undone the good they did. It is as if soldiers having won a trench let the Germans come back into it.

People of small means often feel that all they can save is so small that it cannot really help and wonder if the effort to save is worth while, but if every person in America saved 2 cents a day, it would amount to $730,000,000 in a year, and that would find a great deal of munitions.

Finding the money by saving finds everything, releases men for the army, finds labour and money for munitions, finds labour for ships and relieves the demands on tonnage, finds supplies. It is the fundamental service of the civilian, and no good citizen wants luxuries while soldiers and sailors need clothes and guns and ships and munitions.

Everybody, man, woman, and child, can join the great financial army and march behind our men, and women have done with us and can do everywhere a great work in this. Women are on our National Committee and doing a great deal of its organization. Our men in the trenches, in the air, at sea, endure for us what we would have said before the war was humanly unendurable. They pay for our freedom with a great price—and we send them out to pay it—in death, disablement, suffering and sacrifice. To fail in our duty behind them would be the great betrayal.

Our treasures are very small things compared with our men. Shall we give them and not our money?



A BOOKMARK, ISSUED BY N.W.S.C.



ANOTHER BOOKMARK



FOOD PRODUCTION AND CONSERVATION

"The whole country ought to realise that we are a beleaguered city."

—The President of the Board of Agriculture.

"If you have any belief in the cause for which thousands of your fellow-countrymen have laid down their lives, you will scrape and scrape and scrape, you will go in old clothes, and old boots, and old ties until such a mass of treasure be garnered into the coffers of the Government as to secure at the end of all this tangle of misery a real and lasting settlement for Europe."

—The President of the Board of Education.



CHAPTER X

FOOD PRODUCTION AND CONSERVATION

In this great struggle the food question assumes greater and greater importance.

The production of food has been affected by the raising of great armies—more than twenty million men are in arms in Europe—by the feeding of armies, for which we must, of necessity, provide food in excess of what these men would need in civil life. The ability to get the food has been made difficult for us by the submarine warfare. Thousands of tons of wheat lie in Australia, but we cannot afford ships to bring it. Tea has been very short in England, though again there are thousands of tons waiting in India. The most urgent need of the Allies is for ships and more ships. There has been great loss of tonnage and the needs of the Army and Navy absorb the service of vast numbers of the available ships. We have moved 13,000,000 men since war broke out, and the supplies and munitions they have needed, to our many fronts. Ceaselessly we move the wounded. We have to bring into Britain half our food. That we have done this, has been due to the British Navy and the Reserves—the patrols and the mine sweepers—the Fringes of the Fleet—and not least, the merchant seaman. About 6,000 merchantmen have been killed by the enemy, some with diabolical cruelty. These men are torpedoed and come into port, and go for another ship at once. On the ship on which I crossed there were seamen who had been torpedoed three times In its submarine warfare the enemy has broken every international and human law—has used "frightfulness" to its fullest extent, and the answer of our merchant seamen is to go to sea again as soon as the ship is ready, and the older men, who had retired, return to sea. The seaman of our country know the enemy. It was our Seamen's Union that refused to carry the Peace Delegates to Stockholm, and it is they and our fishermen who, in the Reserves, man the patrols and mine sweepers, and who, on our little drifters and trawlers, have fought the enemy's big destroyers—fought till they went down, refusing to surrender.

It is not strange that the best-liked poster in our Food Crusade, and the one people want everywhere, is a simple drawing of a merchant seaman, and under it the words, "We risk our lives to bring you food. It is up to you not to waste it."

The countries that can succeed best in solving the food question are the countries that will win, and the food problem will not cease, any more than many others, when peace is declared.

Very early in the war, existing organizations, such as the National Food Reform Association, and newly created ones, the National Food Economy League and the Patriotic Food League of Scotland, did a great deal of active work on food saving. They aimed at instructing in the scientific principles of the economical use of food, and issued admirable leaflets and Handbooks for Housewives and Cookery Books. A series of Exhibitions, often described as "Patriotic Housekeeping Exhibitions" were held in different parts of the country, organized generally by women's societies. One of the early ones I organized in Salisbury. Later, the Public Trustee was chairman of an Official Committee, which organized large Exhibitions in London and throughout the country. These Exhibitions had stalls showing food values with specimens, had exhibits of the most economical cooking stoves and arrangements, and exhibited every manner of time and labour saving device. They had wonderful exhibits of clothes for children made from old clothes of grown-ups, of marvellous dresses and little jerseys and caps and scarfs made from legs of old stockings. There were charming dresses and underclothing made of the very simplest materials and decorated artistically with stitching and embroidery. These were made by school girls of seven and upwards for themselves, and the Glasgow School of Art's work, done in schools there, was perfectly beautiful. The cost was shown and it was incredibly small. All sorts of things for the household in simple carpentry and upholstery, using up boxes and wood, were shown, and old tins were converted into all sorts of useful household things. Facts as to waste were made as striking as possible by demonstration. Every exhibition had a War Savings Stall and Certificates were often sold at these in large numbers, the Queen buying the first sold at the first London Exhibition.

The great feature of the Exhibitions was Food Saving and Conservation. Demonstrations in cooking and in hay-box cooking, were given and these were attended by thousands of women, Miss Petty, "The Pudding Lady," being a specially attractive demonstrator. She was called "The Pudding Lady," first by little children in London in the East End, where she used to go into the homes, and show them how to cook on their own fires, and with their own meagre possessions. When she came there was pudding, so her title came as a result.

We always included exhibits and posters on the care of the babies and the children. Lectures on vegetable and potato growing, bee and poultry keeping, etc., were also given.

There were competitions in connection with the Exhibitions—prizes were offered for the best cake—for the best war bread—for the best dinners for a family at a small cost—for the best weekly budgets of different small incomes—for the best blouse and dress made at a small cost, etc., and these were extremely popular. The prizes were generally War Savings Certificates or labour-saving devices.

From the Governmental point of view the Food work is in two great divisions: Food Production, which is worked by the Food Production Department of the Board of Agriculture, of which the Women's Branch is doing the work of placing women on the land. It not only works on the production of more food but it organizes the conservation of food, such as fruit bottling, and preserving fruit, and vegetable and fruit drying, etc.

A very great deal has been done in demonstrating how to conserve fruit and vegetables all over the country and this has been done to an extent hitherto quite unreached. Co-operative work has been done and most interesting experiments made. The glass bottles necessary have been secured by the Department, and are sold by them to those doing the conservation at a fixed price. Last summer the Sugar Commission also arranged to sell sufficient sugar for making preserves to those people who grow their own fruit. This they succeeded in doing to a very large extent—which was a most valuable conservation.

The Ministry of Food is the other great body dealing with all food problems of supply, price, regulations, and propaganda.

Lord Rhondda is our Food Controller. Our first Controller was Lord Devonport. Food control is the most unpopular work in any country and a Food Controller deserves the help, sympathy and support of every good citizen. No Food Controller, no matter how able, and no matter how great and comprehensive his powers are, can do his work without the co-operation of the people.

Lord Rhondda's powers are very great as to control of supplier prices and regulations. The price of the four pound loaf (and it must be four pounds) is fixed by our Government at 18 cents and the loss is borne by the Government.

The prices of meat, beans, cheese, tea, sugar, milk, and the profits on other articles are regulated by the Ministry. When Lord Devonport was Food Controller we had courses at lunch and dinner limited—a policy most people felt to be stupid as it meant a run on staple foods—and it was abandoned by Lord Rhondda. We had meatless days, which also have been stopped. We found it difficult to do, and impossible to regulate. We had many potatoless days last spring—by regulation in the restaurants—perforce by most of us in towns where they were almost impossible to get, but this year we have the biggest potato crop we have had.

In restaurants and hotels now supplies are regulated. No one can have more than two ounces of bread at any meal, and the amount of flour and sugar supplied is strictly rationed to the hotels, according to the number served. Not more than five ounces of meat (before cooking) can be served at any meal. These regulations are strictly enforced, and the duty of seeing all the regulations are carried out, and all the work done, devolves upon the Local Food Control Committees which have been set up all over the country under the Ministry, by the local authorities. On every such Committee there must be women. They fix prices for milk, etc., and initiate prosecutions for infringements of the laws regulating food.

No white flour is sold or used in Britain. The mills are all controlled by the Government and all flour is now war grade, which means it is made of about 70 per cent white flour and other grains, rye, corn (which we call maize), barley, rice-flour, etc., are added. We expect to mill potato flour this year. Oatmeal has a fixed price, 9 cents a pound, in Scotland, 10 cents in England. No fancy pastries, no icing on cakes and no fancy bread may be made. Only two shapes of loaf are allowed—the tin loaf and the Coburg. Cakes must only have 15 per cent sugar and 30 per cent war grade flour. Buns and scones and biscuits have regulations as to making, also.

Butter is very scarce and margarine supplies not always big enough, and we have tea and sugar and margerine queues in our big towns—women standing in long rows waiting. It is an intolerable waste of time—and yet it seems difficult to get it managed otherwise.

The woman in the home in our country with high prices, want of supplies, and her desire to economise has had a busy and full time, but our people are quite well fed. Naturally enough, considering the hard work we are all doing, our people are really using more, not less food, but waste is being fought very well.

Waste is a punishable offence and if you throw away bread or any good food, you will be proceeded against, as many have been, and fined 40/- to L100. No bread must be sold that is not twelve hours baked. New bread is extravagant in cutting and people eat more. It is interesting to note that in one period of the Napoleonic wars we did the same thing and ate no new bread.

Food hoarding is an offence and the food is commandeered and the hoarder punished. Several people have been fined L50 and upwards.

The work of the Army in economizing food has been a great work. Rations have been cut down and much more carefully dealt with. The use of waste products has become a science. All the fats are saved—even the fats in water used in washing dishes are trapped and saved. The fats are used to make glycerine, and last year the Army saved enough waste fat to make glycerine for 18,000,000 shells. Fats and scraps for pigs, and bones, etc., are all sold and one-third of the money goes back to the men's messing funds to buy additional foods and every camp tries to beat the other in its care and efficiency and the women cooks are doing admirably in this work.

Officers of the Navy and Army are only permitted to spend a certain amount on meals in restaurants and hotels—3/6 for lunch and 5/6 for dinner and 1/6 for tea.

The other side of the Food Campaign is the propaganda and educative work. Lord Rhondda has two women Co-Directors with him—Mrs. C.S. Peel and Mrs. M. Pember Reeves—in the Ministry of Food, and they help in the whole work and very specially with the educational and propaganda work, and with the work of communal feeding.

A number of communal kitchens have been established with great success—many being in London. At these thousands of meals are prepared—soups and stews, fish, and meats, and puddings, every variety of dishes, and the purchasers come to the kitchens and bring plates and jugs to carry away the food. Soups are sold from 2 to 4 cents for a jugful, and other things in proportion. These are established under official recognition, the Municipalities in most cases providing the initial cost. The prices paid cover the cost of food and cooking, and the service is practically all voluntary.

The first propaganda work was, as I have said, done by the War Savings Committees, and our big task was to try to make our people realize how undesirable it is to have to resort to compulsory rationing. We are rationed on sugar and we do not want to adopt more compulsory rationing than is necessary. Compulsory rationing, in some people's minds, seems to ensure supplies. It does not and where, under voluntary rationing, people go round and find other food and get along with the supplies there are, under compulsory rationing there would always be a tendency to demand their ration and to make trouble about the lack of any one commodity in it.

Compulsory rationing to be workable must be a simple scheme, and no overhead ration of bread, for example, is just. The needs of workers vary and so do the needs of individuals, and bread is the staple food of our poorer classes. They have less variety of foods and need more bread than the better-off people. Compulsory rationing may have to come, but most of us are determined it will not come till it is really unavoidable and we are appealing to our people to prevent that, and masses of them are economizing and saving in a manner worthy of the greatest praise.

The rationing we appealed to our people to get down to, was three pounds of flour per head in the week, 21/2 lbs. of meat and 1/2 lb. sugar.

The King's Pledge, which we had signed by those willing to do this, all over the country, pledged people to cut down their consumption of grain by one-quarter in the household, and the King's Proclamation urged this, and economies in grain and horse feeding.

An old Proclamation of the 18th century appealed to our people to cut down their consumption of their grains by one-third and was almost identical in form, and copies signed by Edmund Burke and other famous people were shown in our Thrift Exhibitions in Buckinghamshire.

We arranged meetings for the maids of households in big groups to explain the need and meaning of economy in food with great success. Every head of a household knows that the maids can make or mar one's efforts to save food, and we have found many of ours admirable, and willing to do wonders in the way of economy and saving.

If compulsory rationing in more than sugar comes as it may, the basis of rationing will, we believe, be worked out with as much consideration as possible of the needs of the workers.

Our Co-operative movement is, in a simple way rationing its buyers, by regulating supplies, and it is in voluntary work of that kind, which is going on extensively, and in the people's own efforts and economies that our great hope lies.

The Ministry of Food arranges meetings and sends speakers to associations and bodies of every kind. The schools are very extensively used for demonstrations to which the parents are invited. The children are talked to and write essays on food and general saving and in these, one little girl of seven told us, "If you don't throw away your crusts, you will beat the Kaiser," and another small boy said, "Boys should give up sliding for the war, as it wears out their boots," and another said, "We should not go to picture houses so much—once a week is quite often enough." One little child who had been coached at school returned home to see a baby sister of two throw away a big crust and said, "If Lord Rhondda was here, wouldn't he give you a row." So the root of the matter seems to be in the youth of our country and the sweetness and willingness of their sacrifices is very fragrant. They sing about saving bread and saving pennies, and to hear a choir of Welsh children sing these songs, with a vigour and enjoyment that is infectious, is quite delightful.

Most of our big girls' schools have given up buying sweets, and when they get gifts of them send them to the prisoners and the soldiers. We have, of course, restricted our manufacture of sweets very much.

Our school children have, in addition, worked enormous numbers of school gardens and grown tons of potatoes and vegetables.

Our distilleries are taken over by the Government for spirits for munitions and our beer is cut down very greatly. Travelling kitchens go out from the Ministry of Food also and do demonstrations in villages and country districts on cooking and conservation. The Ministry issues leaflets of recipes and instructions in cooking and has a special Win the War Cookery Book. Articles are also published on food values and quite a number of people begin to understand something about calories, even though they are rather vague about what it all means.

Naturally most of the Food speaking and work is done by women though food control and saving is men's and women's work.

This year we saved grain by collecting the horse chestnuts, a work that was done by the school children. These are crushed and the oil used for munitions and it was reckoned we could save tens of thousands of tons of grain by doing this.

A wonderful work in the use of waste materials has been the work of the Glove Waistcoat Society, to which American women have kindly sent old gloves. Old gloves are cleaned, the fingers are cut off, the other big pieces stitched together and cut into waistcoats and backed by linenette. These are sold to the soldiers and sailors for wear under their tunics and are most beautifully light and windproof. The fingers of kid gloves are made into glue, of wash leather gloves into rubbers for household use. The big pieces of linenette over are made into dust sheets and the small scraps go to stuff mattresses for a Babies' Home. The buttons are carded and sold and the making up provides work for distressed elderly women. It needs no funds—it is self-supporting—it only needs old gloves.

In preventing waste and in food production and conservation, our people have learned much, and a very great deal of admirable work is being done.



THE WOMEN'S ARMY AUXILIARY CORPS

"Now every signaller was a fine Waac, And a very fine Waac was she—e."

"Soldier and Sailor, too."



CHAPTER XI

THE WOMEN'S ARMY AUXILIARY CORPS

The Waacs is the name we all know them by and shall, it seems, continue to. It will have to go into future dictionaries beside Anzac.

The deeds of the Anzacs in Gallipoli and France are immortalised in many records—magnificently in John Masefield's "Gallipoli"—an epic in its simplicity. The work of the Waacs is the work of support and substitution and its records only begin to be made.

The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps is an official creation of this year. At the Women's Service Demonstration in the Albert Hall in January, 1917, Lord Derby asked for Women for clerical service in the army and official appeals were issued in February and repeatedly since that time, and now all over the country we have Recruiting Committees organizing meetings and securing recruits. They are recruiting at the rate of 10,000 a month.

The Waacs had many forerunners in some of our voluntary organizations, in the Women's Reserve Ambulance, of "The Green Cross Society," attached to the National Motor Volunteers—the Women's Volunteer Reserve—the Women's Legion—the Women's Auxiliary Force and the Women Signallers Territorial Corps. The Women's Signallers Corps had as Commandant-in-Chief Mrs. E.J. Parker—Lord Kitchener's sister. They believed women should be trained in every branch of signalling and that men could be released for the firing line by women taking over signalling work at fixed stations. Their prediction came true more than two years later, for today they are in France. They drilled and trained the women in all the branches of signalling semaphore—flags, mechanical arms; and in Morse—flags, airline and cable, sounder (telegraphy), buzzer, wireless, whistle, lamp and heliograph. They also learned map reading—the most fascinating of accomplishments. This Corps had the distinction of introducing "wireless" for women in England in connection with its Headquarters training school. When one of the Corps later accepted a splendid appointment as wireless instructor at a wireless telegraph college—the Corps was duly elated.



The Women's Reserve Ambulance had the distinction of being the first ambulance on the scene in the first serious Zeppelin Raid in London (September, 1915). They came to where the first bombs fell, killing and wounding, and did the work of rescue, and when another ambulance arrived later, "Thanks," said the police, "the ladies have done this job."

They worked assisting the War Hospital Supply Depots, that wonderful organization run by Miss MacCaul, they provided orderlies to serve the meals and act as housemaids, and make the men welcome at Peel House, one of the Canadian Clubs. Others helped in Hospitals, washing up and doing other work.

Others met and moved wounded—others at night took the soldiers to the Y.M.C.A. huts. The Women's Volunteer Reserve, too, seemed to be everywhere doing all sorts of useful, helpful things—disciplined, ready, and trained. The Women's Legion led the way in providing cooks and waitresses for camps and sent out 1,200 of these inside a year. The first convalescent camp to have all its cooking and serving done by women was managed—admirably, too—by the Women's Legion, so the Waacs had many voluntary forerunners, who are mostly in it and amalgamated with it now.

The Waacs are a part of the Army organization—are in His Majesty's Forces and when a girl joins she is subject to army rules and regulations. They are working now in large numbers in England and in France, at all the base towns, and in quiet places, where things that matter are planned and initiated.

The girl who goes to France knows she is going to possible danger by being handed, before she goes, her two identification discs.

For France, no woman under twenty or over forty is eligible. After volunteering, they are chosen by Selection Boards and medically examined. They receive a grant for their uniforms. The workers wear a khaki coat-frock—a very sensible garment—brown shoes and soft hat and a great coat. At the end of a year they get a L5 ($25) bonus on renewing their contracts, and they get a fortnight's leave in a year.

Their payment is not high—it works out about the same as a soldier's when everything is paid—and that, with us, is just over 25 cents a day, so the khaki girl, like the soldier, does not work for the money.

The whole organization is officered and directed by women. Mrs. Chalmers Watson, M.D., C.B.E., is the Chief Controller, with Miss MacQueen as Assistant Chief Controller. Under them are the Controllers—Area, Recruiting, etc., and the officer in charge of a unit is called an Administrator, and under her are deputy administrators and assistant-administrators. They are not given Military titles and do not hold commissions, but their appointments are gazetted in the ordinary way. There is always a strong feeling in England that Military and Naval titles should be strictly reserved.

The equivalent of a sergeant is a "forewoman," and there are quartermistresses in charge of stores. Rank is shown as among the men, by badges, rose and fleur-de-lys.

Administrators are being trained in large numbers. They have a short course of drilling, learn to fill up Army forms, make out pay sheets, how to requisition for rations, catering generally, and how to run a hostel. They also attend practical lectures on hygiene and sanitation. When this is done, they go to camp for a fortnight's training under an administrator in actual charge of a Unit. If they have not done well in this course, they are not appointed.

An administrator receives a $100 grant for her uniform and is paid from $600 to $875 a year out of which $200 is deducted for food. There is generally one officer to every fifty women.

The administrator must drill her girls. The W.A.A.C. is proud of its tone and its discipline. Its officers make the girls feel much is expected of them, because of the uniform they wear, and the girls have made a fine response. There are very few rules and as little restraint as possible. The girls are put on their honour when not under supervision. The administrator has considerable disciplinary powers, but they are very little needed.

It does not seem to be by discipline that the officer succeeds best. There is a nice story told of an Administrator who had been away from her unit some days, returning and being met at the station by one of the rank and file who had come for her bag.

"I am glad to see you, Ma'am," was the greeting, so emphatic a one that the Administrator inquired nervously if something were wrong.

"Oh, no. Seems as if Mother had been away, Ma'am," explained the girl.

The Administrator can help her girls by sorting them out well, putting friends and the same kind of girls together; it makes so much difference.

The Administrator has not only to handle her own sex—she has to deal with men officers and quartermasters, and she succeeds in doing that well, too.

Our Administrators are naturally women of education and carefully chosen and there is plenty of opportunity of rising "from the ranks."

The girls cross over to France on the gray transports, are received by the women Draft Receiving Officers, and go up the lines to their assigned posts.

The women are billeted in some of the base towns in pensions and summer hotels that have been commandeered, in big houses and in one case in a beautiful old Chateau where the ghosts of dead-and-gone ladies of beauty and fashion must wonder what kind of women these khaki clad girls are. The girls in these make their rooms home-like with photographs, hangings, and little personal belongings.

The greater number of girls live in camps, and different types of huts have been tried. Some of the camps are entirely of wooden huts—large and roomy. Other camps have the Nissen hut of corrugated iron, lined with laths wood floored and raised from the ground. These have been linked together in the cleverest way by covered ways. In the sleeping huts the beds are iron bedsteads with springs and horse-hair mattresses. Each bed has four thoroughly good blankets and a pillow. No sheets are given—there is no labour to wash the thousands of sheets, and the cotton is needed. Each woman has a wooden locker with a shelf above, and a chair. Washing and bathing is done in separate huts, and in every camp hot and cold water is laid on.

The mess room is a big hut. The girls wait on themselves and the food is excellent. They receive in rations the same as the soldiers on lines of communication—four-fifths of a fighting man's ration and whatever is over is returned and credited, and the extra money is used for luxuries, games and for entertaining visitors from other camps.

Here is a typical week's meals and it shows how well they are fed:

MONDAY.—Breakfast: Tea, bread, butter, baked mince, jam. Dinner: Cold beef, potatoes, tomatoes, baked apples, custard. Tea: Tea, bread, butter, jam. Supper: Welsh rarebit, bread, butter, jam.

TUESDAY.—Breakfast: Tea, bread, butter, boiled ham, marmalade. Dinner: brown onion stew, potatoes, baked beans, biscuit pudding. Tea: Tea, bread, butter, jam, cheese. Supper: Savoury rice, tea, bread.

WEDNESDAY.—Breakfast: Tea, bread, butter, veal loaf. Dinner: Roast mutton, potatoes, marrow, bread pudding. Tea: Tea, bread, butter, marmalade, jam. Supper: Rissoles, bread, butter, cheese.

THURSDAY.—Breakfast: Tea, bread, butter, fried bacon. Dinner: Meat pie, potatoes, cabbage, custard and rice. Tea: Tea, bread, butter, jam. Supper: Soup, bread and jam.

FRIDAY.—Breakfast: Tea, bread, butter, rissoles, marmalade. Dinner: Boiled beef, potatoes and onions, Dundee roll. Tea: tea, bread, butter, jam, slab cake. Supper: Shepherd's pie, tea, bread, butter.

SATURDAY.—Breakfast: Tea, bread, butter, boiled ham, jam. Dinner: Thick brown stew, potatoes and cabbage, bread pudding. Tea: Tea, bread, butter, jam, cheese. Supper: Toad-in-hole, bread jam.

SUNDAY.—Breakfast: Tea, bread, butter, fried bacon. Dinner: Roast beef, potatoes and cabbage, stewed fruit, custard. Tea: Tea, bread, butter, jam. Supper: Soup, bread, butter, cheese.

They are divided into five big classes for work. There are large numbers of them cooks and waitresses, and many of these cooks come from the best private houses in England, so the Waacs and the soldiers fare well. In one camp in the early days sixty women cooks walked in and sixty men out, released for the fighting lines. The saving in fats done by the women is very great and their economies admirable and the women are waitresses in the camps and messes.

In one base in France when twenty-nine cooks came to take charge in the early days the commanding officer issued an order that expresses very well the spirit in which the women are regarded.

BASE DEPOT.

The Officer Commanding Base Depot wishes to draw the attention of all ranks to the following points in connection with the Domestic Section of the Women's Auxiliary Army, which is employed in this depot:

These women have not come out for the sake of money, as their pay is that of a private soldier. In nearly every case they have lost someone dear to them in this war, and they are out here to try to do their best to make things more comfortable for the men in regard to their food.

It, therefore, is up to all ranks to make their lot an easy and not a hard one during their stay in France. If any man should so forget himself as to use bad language or at any time to be rude to them, it is up to any of his comrades standing by to shut him up, and see that he does not repeat this offence.

To the older men I would say: Treat them as you would your own daughters. To the younger men: Treat them as you would your own sisters.

——, Comdg., Base Depot.

They are doing the clerical work more and more, and in a few weeks have become so technical that they know where to send requisitions concerning 9.2 guns or trench mortars or giant howitzers. There is a favourite story told against an early Waac that when a demand came for armoured hose, she sent it to the clothing department, but she knows better now.

French girls are also helping in the clerical department, working side by side with the Waacs.

Others, the telegraphists and telephonists are in the Signalling Corps and these are the only ones who wear Army badges. They work under the Officers Commanding Signals and are so successful that the officers want thousands more.

Another small group are called the "Hush Waacs." There are only about a dozen of them and they have come from the Censor's Office and between them have a thorough knowledge of all modern languages. They are decoding signalled and written messages, script of every kind.

Numbers more are motor car and transport drivers working with A.S.C.

An intensely interesting piece of work at the front in which the Waacs now are, and in which French women have worked for a very long time, and are still working in large numbers, is the great "Salvage" work of the Army. In the Salvage centre at one ordnance base 30,000 boots are repaired in a week. They are divided into three classes—those that can be used again by the men at the front—those for men on the lines of communication—those for prisoners and coloured labour, and uppers that are quite useless are cut up into laces. They salve old helmets, old web and leather equipments, haversacks, rifles, horse shoes, spurs, and every conceivable kind of battlefield debris.

The work of repair and of renewal of clothing, which goes over to England to be dealt with, is a wonder of economy.

The women are helping in postal work and we handle about three million letters and packets a day in France for our Army there.

One other piece of work that falls to trained women gardeners in the Corps, is the care of the graves in France. There are so many graves in little clusters, lonely by the roadside, and in great cemeteries. They mark them clearly and they make them more beautiful with flowers. No work they have come to do, is done more faithfully than this act of reverence to our heroic and honoured dead.

The Y.W.C.A.'s Blue Triangle is going to be the same symbol for the Waacs as the Red Triangle for the Soldiers. They are building huts everywhere in France and in England, and the girls like them as much as the men do.

In these recreation huts the girls enjoy themselves and there are evenings when the soldier friends come in, too, and have a good time with them, for Waacs and the soldiers know each other and meet at all the Bases and Camps.

They dance and play games, and act, or sing, or come and talk, and one visitor tells us of seeing a girl doing machining at the end of a hut with one soldier turning the handle for her and another helping.

One evening at a dance some gallant Australian N.C.O.'s arrived carrying two enormous pans of a famous salad, that was their specialty, as their contribution to the provisions. So life in the Waacs is not all work—there is play, too, wisely. Every camp has a trained V.A.D. worker to look after the girls in case of sickness. If the case is bad they are sent over to Endell Street Hospital in London.

The Navy is going to follow the Army—so our women will be "Soldier and Sailor too," and we shall have to sing, "Till the girls come home," as well.

The Admiralty has decided to employ women on various duties on shore hitherto done by naval ratings, and to establish a Women's Royal Naval Service. The women will have a distinctive uniform and the service will be confined to women employed on definite duties directly connected with the Royal Navy. It is not intended at present to include those serving in the Admiralty departments or the Royal Dockyards or other civil establishments under the Admiralty. There are thousands of women in these already, as there were in Army pay offices, etc., before the Waacs were formed.

Dame Katherine Furse, G.B.E., will be Director of the Women's Royal Naval Service, and will be responsible under the Second Sea Lord, for its administration and organization.

Already we hear they are likely to be known as the "Wrens." And so our women are inside the organized forces of defence of our Country—the last line of usefulness and service.



THE WAR AND MORALS

"Evils which have been allowed to flourish for centuries cannot be destroyed in a day. If the nation really wishes to be freed from the consequences of prostitution it must deal with the sources of prostitution by a long series of social, educational, and economic reforms. The ultimate remedy is the acceptance of a single standard of morality for men and women, and the recognition that man is meant to be the master and not the slave of his body. There are thousands of men both in the army and out of it who know this, and for whom the streets of London have no dangers."

—Dr. HELEN WILSON.



CHAPTER XII

THE WAR AND MORALS

The unprecedented state of things produced by the war brought in its train serious anxiety as to moral conditions, not only in regard to the relation between the sexes but in other ways. The gathering of every kind of man together in camps creates great problems. Young boys, who had never been away from home before, who know very little of the world or of temptations, were often flung in with very undesirable companions. There were many risks and many hard tests and the parents who see their young boys go to camp without preparing them, or warning them, do their boys a great disservice and I have known of sons who bore in their hearts a feeling of having been badly treated by their parents, that would never die, for being sent without a word of counsel into these things.

It is not only actions—corrupt thoughts are the most evil of all—and to help to give our boys the greatest possession, moral courage, founded on knowledge, is our finest gift.

There were temptations to think less cleanly, to hear things said without protest and to say them later. There were drinking temptations and one used to wonder with a sick heart, what mothers would feel if they could see these young boys of theirs sometimes, so pathetically young and so foolish. There was also in these great camps of men—let us realize that quite clearly—great good for the boys and the men—good that far outweighs the evil. All the good of discipline, all they gained by their coming together for a great cause, all they gained in that great comradeship and service for each other, and in their self-sacrifice for their country and the world. The wonder and beauty of what it is, and means some of our own men have told us—among them one who died, Donald Hankey, and has left us a rich treasure in his works. And we all know it in our own men—that abiding spirit that is the vision without which the people perish.

But there are and were evils to fight and men and women to help. The huts and canteens and guesthouses are great agencies for good—as well as for comfort. Loneliness, and nowhere to go, and no one to talk to, are conditions that make for mischief.

Then there were the girls at the outbreak of the war, excited by all that was happening, not yet busy as they nearly all are now, feeling that the greatest thing was to know the soldiers and talk and walk with them, and flocking around camps and barracks, being foolish and risking worse.

The National Union of Women Workers decided to take action about this and drew up a scheme which they submitted to the Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Edward Henry, K.C.V.O. This scheme was for women of experience and knowledge of girls to patrol in the camps and barrack areas, and talk to girls who were behaving foolishly, and try to influence them for good. It was felt and it turned out to be quite accurate that the mere presence of these women would make girls and men behave better. Sir Edward Henry approved of the idea and arranged that each Patrol should have a card signed by him to be carried while on duty, authorizing the Patrols to seek and get the assistance of the Police, if necessary, and the Patrols wore an armlet with badge and number.

Their work in London proved so successful that the Home Office recommended the adoption of the scheme in provincial centres, where the Chief Constables authorized them and later the War Office asked for more Patrols in some of the camp areas and spoke very highly of their work.