Women and War Work Part 15

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 a.s.sistance 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.

A woman Patrol is generally a woman who is busy in her own home or profession all day, but who gives some hours one or two evenings a week to this work.

They have done the work faithfully and well, and have exceeded in their success all antic.i.p.ations. There are about 3,000 Patrols in the Kingdom; of these eighty-five are engaged in special work in London and paid by the Commissioner of Police. Two are engaged in work at Woolwich a.r.s.enal. Two are Park Keepers appointed by the Board of Works and are working in Kensington Gardens, and their names were submitted to the King before appointment. They have the power of arrest.

A subsidy has been granted to the Women's Patrol Committee for the training of Women Patrols of 400 a year. In many big towns admirable work has been done.

In Edinburgh the Patrol Committee was asked by H.M. Office of Works to help the men park keepers in keeping order in the King's Park.

This they have done with great success. Dublin has just taken over two women Patrols as paid workers.

The Military, Admiralty, Police, and Civil Authorities have all united in praising their work and any one can realize how much patience and tact and knowledge it calls for, and what it means to have had it done for over three years. The patrols have not been content only to talk to the girls, though it is wonderful what that alone can do. They have succeeded in getting them to come to clubs and they have worked in connection with the mixed clubs of which we have several very successful ones. A mixed club is very useful and helpful, but it must be well run by a good committee of men and women, and you need people of judgment and knowledge and tactful firmness in charge of it, if it is to be the best kind of club.

We have found an admirable thing is to have evenings for men friends in the Girls' Clubs when the girls can invite their men friends in, and have music and games and entertainment.

When Patrols were started, there was a very strong feeling that there ought to be women police, a much needed change in our country. We had none when war broke out, but in September, 1914, Miss Darner Dawson founded the Women Police Service. When members joined they were trained in drill, first aid, practical instructions in Police Duties, gained by actual work in streets, parks, etc. They studied special acts relating to women and children and civil and criminal law and the procedure and rules of evidence in Police Courts.

Their first work was done in Grantham where, in November, 1914, the Women's Central Committee of Grantham elected a Women Police Subcommittee to provide a fund for the payment of two Police Women to work with the Chief Constable. In February the following letter was written about their work:

"To the Chief Officer, Women Police,--I understand that there is some idea of removing the two members of the Women Police now stationed here. I trust that this is not the case. The services of the two ladies in question have proved of great value. They have removed sources of trouble to the troops in a manner that the Military Police could not attempt. Moreover, I have no doubt whatever that the work of these two ladies in an official capacity is a great safeguard to the moral welfare of young girls in the town.

(Signed) "F. HAMMERSLEY, M.G., Commanding 11th Division, Grantham."

and in November, 1915, they were made official Police by the City Council. In July, 1916, the Police Miscellaneous Provisions Act was pa.s.sed, which encouraged the employment of Policewomen by stating that pay of the police "shall be deemed to include the pay of any women who may be employed by a Police Authority," etc.

Now there are thirty-four Policewomen in our Boroughs, but their position is still anomalous and unsatisfactory, as they do not come under the Police Act for purposes of discipline, pay, pensions, and compensation, but this will come. Meantime the Women Police Service goes on doing its admirable work of training and providing Volunteer and Semi-official police (supported by women's funds), in addition to those appointed by local authorities in Boroughs.

These semi-official police women are able to do a great deal, if the Chief Constable is friendly, and, naturally, they are appointed where he is so. They are often made Probation Officers and are used for children's and girl's and women's cases. Their work leads more and more to the official appointments and in this work as in so many of our successes, we women have achieved the results by having the voluntary organizations and training ourselves first and proving our fitness.

From my own experience, it is impossible to speak too highly of the kindness and willingness of many Chief Constables to do everything to teach and help the women.

The Women Police Service naturally insists on a high standard of training and this has been of great value.

A big development of women police work has been in the Munition factories where now about 700 women are employed in this capacity in England, Scotland and Wales.

The report of the Women's Police Service gives the following interesting account.

"In 1916 the Department Explosives Supply of the Ministry of Munitions applied to Sir Edward Henry for a force of Women Police to act as guards for certain of H.M. Factories. Sir Edward Henry sent for the two chief officers of the Women Police Service, and informed them that it was his intention to recommend them to the Ministry of Munitions for the supplying of the Women Police required. They thanked the Commissioner for his expression of trust in their capabilities, and in July an agreement was drawn up between the Minister of Munitions and the Chief Officer and Chief Superintendent of the Women Police Service, who were appointed to act as the Minister's representatives for the 'training, supplying and controlling' of the Force required.

The duties of the Policewomen were to include checking the entry of women into the factory, examining pa.s.sports, searching for contraband, namely, matches, cigarettes and alcohol; dealing with complaints of petty offences; patrolling the neighbourhood for the protection of women going home from work; accompanying the women to and fro in the workmen's trains to the neighbouring towns where they lodge; appearing in necessary cases at the Police Court, and a.s.sisting the magistrates in dealing with such cases, if required to. The Force for each factory was to consist of an inspector, sergeants and constables. Women to be trained for this work were at once enrolled by the Women Police Service and trained under a Staff of Officers.

"Since the inauguration of factory-police work for women in July, 1916, a marked success has attended the organisation, which has resulted in almost daily applications for Policewomen for factories situated in every part of the United Kingdom. We are not able to give a list of these factories nor to mention their names in our report of the work carried on by them, but we may say that at the present time we are supplying H.M. Factories, National Filling Factories and Private Controlled Factories. We are sure that our patrons and subscribers will feel as proud as we are of the intrepid Policewomen who for the past fourteen months have been carrying out these duties, which, we believe, no women have hitherto dreamt of undertaking, and which have called forth qualities of tact, discretion, cool courage and endurance that would compare well with any of those whom we call heroes in the fight at the front. We would call attention to one factory from which both the military and male Police Guard has been withdrawn. The factory employs several thousand women in the manufacture and disposal of some of the most dangerous explosives demanded by the war. When an air raid is in progress the operatives are cleared from the factory and the sheds and magazines are left to the sole charge of the Firemen and Policewomen, who take up the respective posts allotted to them. The Policewomen who guard the various magazines know that they hold their lives in their hands.

We are proud to report that not one woman has failed at her post or shirked her duty in the hour of danger. The duties a.s.signed to the Policewomen and their officers in these factories have increased considerably in scope during the past year. In one factory the force of Policewomen numbers 160 under one Chief Inspector, two Inspectors and twelve Sergeants, all of whom have been sworn in and take entire charge of all police cases dealing with women. They arrest, convey the prisoners to the Women Police Charge Station, keep their own charge sheets and other official doc.u.ments, lock the prisoner in the cells, keep guard over her, convey her to the Court House for trial, and if convicted convey her to the prison. A short time ago the Inspector of Policewomen in one of H.M. Factories was instructed by the authorities to send a Policewoman to a distant town to fetch a woman prisoner, an old offender. The Policewoman was armed with a warrant, railway vouchers and handcuffs. The prisoner was handed over to the Policewoman by the Policeman, and the Policewoman and her charge returned without trouble. The prisoner expressed her relief and grat.i.tude at being escorted by a Policewoman, and behaved well throughout the journey. The Policewoman reported that she was given every courtesy and a.s.sistance by both police and railway officials.

[Ill.u.s.tration: POLICE WOMEN]

"We believe this const.i.tutes the first time in history that women guards have been entrusted with the care and custody of their fellow-women when charged with breaking the law."

Other pieces of important and difficult work have been undertaken by women.

There have been, unfortunately, cases in which the soldier's wife, left at home, has behaved badly and been unfaithful. Men often write from the trenches to the Chief Constable to ask if charges made to them in letters about their wives are true. Naturally the Chief Constable asks the women to investigate these charges. Sometimes the charges are quite unfounded, simply spiteful and malicious and the woman and Chief Constable write and say so.

In other cases the husband knows of unfaithfulness and writes to the Army Pay Office asking to have the allowance stopped to his wife.

The Army Pay Office never acts on any such letter without securing a report from the Chief Constable, and again the woman is needed, and there is frequently the question of the children as well. Their allowance, of course, never ceases but they may go to some relative or be disposed of in some way.

These cases are infinitesimal in number.

After the outbreak of the war there were many scares. Every one in our country knows now how a myth is established. We have left the stage behind where people told you they knew, from a friend, who knew a friend who knew some one else who saw it, who was in the War Office, etc., etc., etc.--that England was invaded--that the Navy was all down--or the German Navy was all down--that we were going to do this, that, or the other impossible thing.

Dame Rumour had a joyous time in the early days of the war and we suffered from the people who were not only quite certain that everything was wrong morally, but told us that the illegitimate birth rate was going to be enormous. Their accusations against our ordinary girls were monstrous. There was some excitement and foolishness, but anybody who was really working and dealing with it as the Patrol were, knew the accusations were ridiculous. The illegitimate birth rate of our country is lower than before, which is the best reply to, and the vindication of the men of our armies and our girls against, these absurd attacks.

Another scare was about the drinking of women. Soldiers' wives were attacked in this connection and the same kind of wild accusation made, so much so that a committee was appointed to go into the whole question (1915), presided over by Mrs. Creighton, President of the National Union of Women Workers.

In my experience a great deal of this talk was caused by the fact that many women, who had never done social work, and who knew nothing of real conditions, started to go among the people and were shocked and overwhelmed by what were unfortunately normal wrong conditions, and lost all sense of perspective. Some women did drink--true--but I found they were generally the women who always had done it, and who perhaps in some cases, having more money of their own and no husbands to deal with, drank a little more.

The findings of the Committee showed this clearly and they made some recommendations, especially recommending that the Central Board for the Control of the Liquor Traffic proceeded to do on its creation, restriction of hours of sale. Our restrictions make the sale of liquor legal only from 12 noon to 2.30 and from 6.30 to 8.30 or 9 P.M. Our convictions for drunkenness for women have fallen very low and for men, too. There is very much less drinking in our country and things are very much improved.

These attacks on soldiers' wives were naturally much resented as their work in the homes and industries, with their men away, and all their difficulties, has not always been easy. We find there is a little more difficulty with the boys. They miss the fathers' discipline and there has been some trouble through that, but such magnificent agencies as the Boy Scouts, who have helped us everywhere in the war, do great good.

The problem of dealing with the prevention of immorality has been a big one. The Women Patrols and the Women Police have been used in London in Waterloo Road (which had a bad reputation) and in parks, etc. The G.R. Volunteer Corps of men who meet the soldier arriving in London at the stations do a very good work.

In the Army and Navy excellent leaflets and booklets were issued dealing with the question in a very straightforward and admirable way.

The Council for Moral and Social Hygiene and the National Council for Combating Venereal Diseases has been doing a great work. The latter, which is a body set up as a result of the Government Commission on Venereal Diseases, had done a great deal of educational work and has set up an organization over the country. The Commission recommended much fuller facilities for free treatment for those suffering from these diseases in every town and district.

A Criminal Law Amendment Bill has been brought in and it improves our existing law in many ways and strengthens it. There has been much controversy about certain of its provisions, some dealing with power to send young girls to homes. There is a very strong feeling among many of our social workers that Rescue Work in our country altogether needs overhauling and change, and new experiments are being tried.

Wars have almost invariably in the past meant an enormous increase in venereal diseases on the return of the army in the civil population.

Armies lose large numbers of men by them, and every person must feel it is their plain duty to leave no means untried and no measures unused that could help.

The woman who lives by her immoral earnings is, like the man who is immoral and uncontrolled, a serious danger and menace to her country and to generations yet unborn.

The problems that arise from the existence of these two groups are the business of all men and women. The problems are those of providing decent and wholesome recreation and surroundings, of helping men and women to meet under right conditions, of giving the right kind of information and guidance to the soldier and the girl, of realizing what drink does in this traffic, and the fundamental task of working to create better social, economic and moral conditions.

There is no need nor is it desirable to have ma.s.ses of people suffer unnecessary misery by a knowledge of the exact nature of this disease--which leads sometimes to morbidity and often to a frenzied desire to do something at once, before they really know anything about the question and what has been done.

There are three questions that ought to be answered in the affirmative before any legislation or preventive treatment is decided on.

Will the proposed action apply equally to men and to women, to rich and to poor?

Will it tend to increase and not undermine the powers of self-control?

Will it improve morals in the nation and elevate them?

Repressive measures by themselves achieve nothing. Preventive measures of every practical and sound kind we want, but most of all we need to inculcate the truth that "Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, These three alone lead man to sovereign power."

It is not enough to prevent and teach. We should be willing to help up, to save, to love, and we should never be self-righteous in our help.