Women’s Views

From The Illustrated London News, 15th December 1917.

LADIES' PAGE

Both Canadian and Australian women have been voting in London for the respective Parliaments of their own countries.  The one subject upon which the women, as well as the men, are being called upon to pronounce their opinion as voters is the employment of conscription to maintain the respective Colonial forces at the front in adequate numbers.  Australian women have had full and equal Parliamentary suffrage for a good many years; the Canadian women's vote is new, a recognition of the value of the patriotic services that they have rendered to the defence of their country, as English-women's coming franchise is also to be regarded.  As the Colonial women voters in this country are those who have come over to serve as Army nurses, there can be little doubt that their votes will be cast in favour of the cause to which they are giving their lives.

There is, however, a great fallacy in assuming, as is often done, that in a general way there is a sex-cleavage of opinion.  Women differ amongst themselves on all possible subjects of debate, precisely as men do; and the reasons for the differences are the same in kind. Our family training and tendencies — that is to say, the kind of views expressed, while the youthful mind is pliable and responsive, by those whom we are trained to respect and by nature love and desire to please; the company into which we are thrown; the character of our own organisation, whether robust, active and daring, or the reverse — all the conditions of life, in short — mould our minds and modify our opinions, whether we be men or women. Sex, very probably, is one factor, but not one that over-rides all others in the formation of opinions. Every day we may see illustrations of the great differences of opinion amongst women, even about what may be called specially women's questions.  Such a diversity is now being displayed over the new law proposed about the remarriage of separated persons: after they have been parted for three years, it is suggested, either of them shall be able to claim a full divorce without needing the consent of the other. There are in this country several hundreds of thousands of such separated husbands and wives, some apart under voluntary deeds, many more by magistrates' orders. Though their marriages are practically at an end permanently, and all the purposes of marriage as set forth in the Book of Common Prayer are abrogated, these people can never marry again in each other's lifetime as the law now stands.

A strong committee has been formed to press this alteration on Parliament; but an equally ardent and vigorous objecting committee has also been constituted under Church of England auspices; and on both these committees there are many women of light and leading.  It is obviously one of those perplexing cases where the most just and personally unprejudiced mind may find something to be urged on both sides.  But the Church-woman, regarding marriage as a sacrament—or at least an inalienable, a necessarily life-long tie — can admit of no excuse for the proposal; while the more worldly woman's mind sees nothing but the cruel disadvantage to a woman of being legally tied to a man who is no longer really a husband and protector, yet whose name of husband prevents the chance of the unfortunate wife finding happiness in another marriage.  Even the women concerned do not agree upon the proposal.  "I feel that nobody has any right to make me a divorced woman when I have been true to my marriage vow in letter and spirit," says one separated wife; while another bemoans in agony of soul the cruel state of the law that certainly makes it difficult for her to get employment, perhaps shuts her out from accepting another husband, and so debars her, though faultless, from having the joys of motherhood and settled social position.  On the other hand, if a man may so behave as to force his wife to separate from him, and then he may divorce her after three years, where are we?  So even on such a subject there is no "woman's party."

Butter and Margarine Rationing in Sheffield

From the Sheffield Independent,15th December 1917.

SHEFFIELD FOOD CONTROL

Rationing of Butter, Margarine and Tea.

The Sheffield Food Control Committee met yesterday evening to consider a scheme for the regulation of the supplies of butter and margarine within the city.  This scheme was the outcome of conferences between traders in the city and representatives of the committee.

The essential feature of the scheme is that each householder shall be "tied" to a shop for the supply of the commodities named.  He or she will be supplied with a card available for three months, and when a purchase is made this will be entered upon the card.  Through the medium of the committee the shopkeeper will secure the supplies necessary to give customers the fixed amount.  The card which will be issued will be threefold—one portion for the shopkeeper, another for the committee, and the third for the householder.

The committee has made elaborate arrangements as to how the cards shall be filled up and stamped, and a sub-committee will consider and deal with questions of supplies, deliveries, etc.

It has been decided that "there shall be no canvassing or advertising for cards," and that the scheme shall be extended to tea and any other foods.

The Rhondda Biscuit

From the Evening Despatch (Birmingham), 11th December 1917.

THE RHONDDA BISCUIT.

Lord Rhondda [the Food Controller] has just confessed that he does not consume a pound of tea a year, and a woman correspondent reveals the secret that he is eating oatmeal instead of bread.

If these simple and economical oatmeal biscuits were tried (she says) more people would follow his example: Into 1 gill [¼ pint] of boiling water melt loz. margarine or dripping.  Stir in ½lb. medium oatmeal and a saltspoonful of salt.  Knead for few minutes, roll out, cut into squares and bake 30 minutes.

From the Yorkshire Evening Post, 30^th November 1917.

“RHONDDAS.”

"A quarter of a pound of Rhonddas, please," asked the small child.  From the biscuit-tin with duly printed label, the shop-keeper handed over the goods demanded.  Thus, remarks the Daily Chronicle, is the  Food Controller already assured of immortality, for long after the war has become a memory Rhondda biscuits will remain a household reality.

Dundee Knitting Fortnight

From the Dundee Courier, 7th December 1917.

Public Notices.

DUNDEE WOMEN'S WAR RELIEF FUND COMMITTEE.

KNITTING FORTNIGHT.

COMFORTS FOR THE MEN AT THE FRONT.

WE GIVE THE WOOL.   WILL YOU GIVE THE WORK?

APPLY—HEAD OFFICE, 27 BANK STREET.

ALL THE WARD DEPOTS.

The Soldiers fight 'mid war's alarm;

Let US KNIT to keep them warm.

Christmas Gifts needed for the Front

From The Manchester Guardian, 5th December 1917.

THE CIVILIAN'S CHANCE

CHRISTMAS GIFTS NEEDED FOR THE

FRONT.

The civilian's lot in war-time is to all appearances a humble enough business, and it is hard to talk of his sacrifices.  His figure seems woefully insignificant against the vivid background of actual war, with its terrors and triumphs, its interminable epics of human fortitude and endeavour.  All of us stay-at-homes must surely feel, as we read of the struggle at Cambrai, that, however ambitiously we cast our resolutions, life for us will remain tolerably comfortable; that, no matter how grimly we steel ourselves to face the prospect of sugarless coffee and margarine eternally, we are hopelessly "out of it," like "twelfth men" in cricket matches, or even the scorers!

Yet our work at home is flattered by the very men who are sacrificing most: our fighting men are ever sending to us the call—nay, the entreaty—to keep and cherish all that they mean by "England" while they are away.  A simple enough task this is, in all conscience, and it can almost be defined in terms of warm hearthsides, steadfast friendliness—and "comforts." 

The list of articles printed below—compiled by Lancashire and Cheshire soldiers as representative of the things they need most to keep life in the trenches just tolerable,—these things can carry to a soldier on service the very essence of that English home life ho has left in our care. If we would answer Tommy's call to "keep the home fires burning" (and of course we are all desperate to do so if we could only find the way), the Comforts Fund offers one excellent way of doing it.

THE ARTICLES ASKED FOR. 

Cigarettes, cigarette papeors, tobacco, shag tobacco, pipes (clay and briar), tobacco pouches, pipe lighters. matches, candles, mufflers, socks, mittens, gloves, sleeveless sweaters, shirts, singlets, bootlaces, Balaclava caps. bachelors' buttons, macintosh capes, handkerchiefs, soap, shaving soap, safety razors, nail scissors, boot polish (black), 'tooth brushes, boot brushes, safety pins, anti-frostbite grease, insect powder, combination knife, fork, and spoon, needles, sewing cotton, chocolate, peppermints, tinned meats and fish, sweets, café au lait, writing pads, writing paper, envelopes, mouth organs, gramophones, gramophone records, indoor games, footballs, magazines and other reading matter, steel minors, tooth paste, pipe cleaners, and tinned milk.

Glove Waistcoat Society

From the Llanelli Star, 1st December 1917. 

GLOVE WAISTCOAT SOCIETY. 

One of the greatest hardships of a winter campaign is the suffering caused to our soldiers and sailors by icy winds on land and sea.  Leather is the only effective protection, but generally beyond the means of those who need it so sorely.  The Glove Waistcoat Society, 75, Chancery Lane, London, W.C., has solved the difficulty of supplying leather coats by utilising waste soft leather of every description, such as cast-off gloves (kid, suede, etc.), discarded furniture covers, and also the fur linings of ladies' worn-out cloaks.  The fur coats are in great demand by mine-sweepers, as also the overall gloves made from the very small pieces of fur.  Contributors of material to "The Glove Waistcoat Society" may be assured that their help means work for a woman and warmth for a man.  Miss Doris David, Old Town Hall, who has been appointed as local agent, will be glad to receive any of the aforementioned materials.

Women in America

From the Illustrated London News, 1st December 1917.

LADIES' PAGE.

The chief difference that struck me on my two visits to the States was the way in which American women are allowed a free field and no favour—so different from here, where women are too often put in the background and kept from exercising the talents which they possess.  I could name a number of instances in this war in which the offered services of conspicuously competent women have been utterly rejected.  The women Army doctors are one illustration.  Their proffered services were blankly and curtly refused.  Not until the French Government, hard pushed for surgeons, and the poor Serbians, quite destitute of such help, had accepted and so displayed the value of our women's services, did our Government at length allow our own competent women doctors to treat wounded men.  In America, nearly forty years ago, a woman surgeon was called in to the assassinated President Garfield, and her signature appeared on the bulletins with those of eminent men colleagues.  Of the twenty or so fine and costly buildings that were put up by the different States at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, four had women architects; and a woman sculptor was given the commission by the State for the heroic statue of "Illinois Welcoming the Nations."  There are English women sculptors and architects, but there is no great statue or building that they have been allowed to undertake.  To snub women of high ability is an instinct with not a few Englishmen; American men arc almost free from it.  Consequently, they have not only a double reservoir of talent at call, but the liberated and encouraged energies of the women react upon their children, and help to produce the high level of capacity of American men.

This was pointed out to me by the extremely able lady, Miss Carey Thomas, LLD., who is Dean of Bryn Mawr, the great women's University near Philadelphia, at which President Wilson was at one time a Professor.  "In the United States," she said, "we have for the first time in history men who are the sons of several generations of parents educated on equal terms, and we see a marked result."  She ascribed the greater freedom of those men from prejudice against women's activities to universal primary co-education.  "When a boy has sat on the same bench with girls all the time he is at school, and knows very well that he has had to work his hardest to keep pace with the girls," Dr. Thomas said, "it is not possible for him as he grows up to be certain that his abilities are so wonderfully beyond those of his sister."  So American women are allowed to try what they can do; and in every direction they "make good."  It is rumoured that a corps of women is training to pilot the American war-airships.  I should deeply deplore women entering on the business of killing; and it would make no difference in the result, for if one nation accepted women as soldiers, the rest would necessarily follow suit.  But I am certain that if American girls have made up their minds to do this, they will be allowed to achieve it.  Meantime, a million women in America have already enrolled their names for war service of different kinds.