The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-06-16
Conscription For English
 Women From 19 to 31
Announcement of Member of ParIiamen-English Girls Treat Air Raid Signals With Contempt-Three Certificates From Physicians Needed to Get
 Gasoline to Go Motor Ride
By LADY MARY

write l keep thinking-thinking this time tomorrow night I will have my face turned toward England-I am going homer
 It is really rather a thrilling thought in these wartimes, and everybody seems to be exceedingly anxious about me Some people are really encourag ing. Others mean to be, but are not so successful
 My favorite waiter when giving me my breakfast this morning was most anxious to hear something concerning my feelings in the matter. Nervous. are you?' he asked as he gave me an extra piece of butter and refilled my glass with ice.
 assured him that I was not whereat. he sighed and offered me more butter-"Wfell, we'll" quoth he, they say that they ain't sinking so many ships now, but my cousin just before she sailed on the Lusitania was just as cheerful about it as you are poor girl; she never reached the other sider'
 I swallowed a lump of ice the wrong way, cnoked. and tried to Hook pleas ant" but ] divided that walters tip by half and even then grudged it's presen- tation.
 However, I am packed and ready to rake my lonely and mysterious journey to the iealously guarded dock from which my unnamed vessel sets sail and my chief sensation at the moment is one Of surprise that residence of six months in one place seems to mean the up roofing of a lifetime's effects. How things accumulate! How much like an effort to crowd the measure of quar [ into pint rot does this packing-up pro- cess resemble.
 Letters, letters! How they multiply and how one hates to destroy them! News from home jealously guarded, cara- fully kept until you suddenly find that you are tIeasuring huge quantities Of waste paper that it is impossible to pack up with the rest of your belongings. And so down upon the floor you sit eff you are at all like mel and you tear and tear and tear up paper till your fingers acne and you squat like a sort of monument in the midst of charnel house of mem orieS!
 GASOLINE PRECIOUS think what I will most miss when l once more find myself in London will be the automobiles. "Over there gas oline, or petrol as we call it. is an in finitely precious and forbidden fluid, and there is no pleasure riding at all.
 One of the letters that I am about to destroy contains just this little item:
 Our friend Ethel starts for South De- von today. She is very jubilant, as she is actually going to motor down there. She has managed to secure petrol per- init. She had to get certificates from the independent medical men and an- ether from an official physician stating that the state of her health made 1t necessary that she should go to Devon shire by road instead of rail.
 cbe bad tn eta hours in various government offices filling in forms and revealing the secrets of her life to rnsympathetic clerks until she was finally permitted to leave town in her own pet particular little car that has been sitting neglected in a garage for nearly six months.
 By the way. a member of Parlia- ment has announced officially that England will have conscription for women between the ages of 19 and 31 within the next six months! If you don't come home soon you will prob ably find me called up in my group"
 Although we seldom hear of them through the newspapers. London is still apparently having few aerial visita- tions now and again.
 CONTEMPT FOR AIR RAIDS
 In another letter saved from the wreckage occurs a line that may in terest you. "A party of six of us went to the theatre the other evening and then came back here for egg and let tuce sandwiches and cocoa. Just as we were settling ourselves down com fortably to this frugal repast the bang bangs started operations. So we drew the curtains tighter in case flying fighters should spy us. and sat down