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Aviation History
1918
1918 - 1367.PDF
Nor can the fact be ignored that in both directions immense influence is being brought to bear in favour of lenient treatment for the Hun. It will not do, however, and the Government that is satisfied with anything less than the skin of the beast now that, it is dead will be playing with fire—and will of a surety be burnt. ... According to The Times there is more o/the than a little ProsPect of th.e W.R.A.F. W.R.A.F. becoming a permanent service, and that women who signed on for the duration of the War may have the option of remaining in the Force under new conditions. The Force now numbers some 23,000 women and girls, of whom 6,600 were taken over from the W.A.A.C. and a further 2,000 from the W.R.N.S., the remainder having been directly recruited. Before going any further with the discussion of the matter at large, it may be remarked that it is a little early to lay down establishments and to decide what parts of our temporary war organisation are to be kept up. Parliament and the Tax-payer will certainly have a voice in the matter, and very properly so. Moreover, those who are straining every nerve to consolidate their temporary positions into per- manent posts appear to forget that as the War has been waged in order, that militarism and War shall become things of the past, it is reasonably certain that there will be clauses in the Peace Treaty setting forth the basis of the armed forces which each com- ponent State of the League of Nations may keep permanently established. Therefore, all the talk that is going the rounds about the retention of this and the escape from demobilisation of the other is, to say the least, slightly premature. Now, as to the future of the W.R.A.F., this is a question which will require the most careful con- sideration, since there are a number of factors which will have to be taken into account and very nicely balanced before any final decision can be taken. It must be said at once that the idea that .all these 23,000 women and girls, embodied for war service, can be kept on permanently after peace is hardly reasonable. It would be just as reasonable as to argue that the whole of the New Armies should be kept under arms. Nor has the W.R.A.F. been such a signal success all round as to justify even the beginnings of the idea. In certain directions the personnel of the Force has been exceedingly useful. Domestic ratings, fabric workers, typists and office DECEMBER 5, 1918 •- workers have been able to release a considerable number of men for more laborious tasks and for the fighting line. But when we come to consider the case of the transport drivers, the telephonists and others the raison d'etre of their recruitment is not so apparent. We do not presume to say that these have not been useful at all. On the contrary, many of them have done excellent work. It is neverthe- less a fact that the number of men released by them has been very small, owing to the limitations placed by authority on their hours and conditions of work. For example, women drivers are not allowed to undertake long journeys of more than 40 miles each way, so that men-have to be retained at the stations to act as emergency drivers. Again, if any journey is to be undertaken after 9 p.m. a male driver is required. The consequence of this sort of thing is reflected by a case in point of one South Coast station possessing four or five cars for which there were a~ihort time ago eight women drivers, with a corporal and nine men kicking their heels about the garage to take over the duty the women were not allowed to do. In the case of female telephonists attached to : ta- tions, up to a short time ago these were not allowed to be on duty after 6 p.m., though the hour has now, we believe, been extended to 9 p.m., Consequently, there had to be male operators carried on the establish- ment to act as night reliefs. And so on all down the list. Admitting that a great deal of admirable work has been done, we are very strongly of opinion that there is a case for the closest enquiiy before the decision is taken to continue the W.R.A.F. as a per- manent service on its existing basis. Undoubtedly, there will be a great deal of scope for women's work in connection with the R.AF , but to simply lay down that the W.R.A.F. is to be continued as at pre- sent would be against public policy. We shall have to maintain a powerful air service after the War is definitely ended, but the needs of national economy must be studied, and it seems to us that one of the first directions in which economies can most usefully be , effected is in relation to such bodies as the -W.R.A.F. and the naval and military organisations- corres- ponding to it. We have no axe to grind, nor do we desire to be thought hypercritical of women's services in the War, but we should be failing in our duty did we not point out that where economy is to be the order of the day it may well begin in the direction of the less efficient and necessary parts of our future peace organisation for defence. The Queen at the Royal Agricultural HallTHE Queen visited the aeroplane repair dep6t of the R.A.F. at the Agricultural Hall, Islington, on November 30th,a contingent of 100 members of the W.R.A.F. forming a guard of honour. The Queen was shown round the work-shops by the Commanding Officer, Major Morgan, and saw some hundreds of women engaged on the repair of aeroplanewings, etc., being specially interested in the section devoted to woodwork. Subsequently Her Majesty made a tonir ofthe galleries where the captured German aeroplanes are displayed.Release from the Air Service THE Air Ministry announces that the naval and militarysituation does not admit of any officers or airmen being re- leased from service, except on compassionate grounds ashitherto, and, in a limited number of special cases, where particular individuals or classes are urgently required for thepurpose of reconstructing industrial conditions prior to demobilisation. The responsibility for dealing with all applications in the latter class of case rests with the Ministry of Labour, whichis making a separate announcement as to the proceduie to be adopted. The offices of the Controller-General of the Civil Demobilisa-tion and Resettlement Department have been removed from 6, Whitehall Gardens, to 8, Richmond Terrace, ParliamentStreet, S.W. Employers of labour desirous of obtaining the release from the Army of former employees should addresstheir requests with full particulars "to Sir Stephenson Kent, Controller-General, Civil Demobilisation and ResettlementDepartment, Ministry of Labour, 8, Richmond Terrace, Parlia- ment Street, S.W. The Institute of Metals at Sheffield A LOCAL section of the Institute of Metals has now beenformed in Sheffield, the recently dissolved Sheffield Society of Applied Metallurgy forming the nucleus of the new section.The Secretary of the Institute is Mr. G. Shaw Scott, 36, Victoria Street, S.W. 1, and he will be glad to send particularsto anyone interested. 1368
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