The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-12-11
Britain Looks To Conscription
 To Smoke Out ''Lady Drones"
RY ROsETTE HARaROYE

eNNfA VNANaSS S"~1 OVAtS@N~ANSAAv
 London, Dec. s-Every unmarried English woman besween 20 and 90 now faces conscription in Brltain's total war" effort. England seems determined that women shall bear their share of the war burden.
 Minister of Labor Ernest Bevin- whom total conscription of women will help most--had first tried ca- jolery and concillatory wheedllng in trying to recruit Britains women for industrial war work. He placed the matter on Q volunteer basis.
 But the plain fact Is, this plan failed. English women simply didn't respond in sufficient numbers.
 Now, however, drastic con- scription bill has been approved by the House of Commons which will mobilize Englands womenpower on Q draft basis.
 WOMEN ARE NOT
 SPECIFIED ALONE
 
 Actually, the bill does not directly specify women alone. It will also call up every man in Britain, With no distinction aS to class, between the ages of l8h to 6i.
 Statutory rights will be preserved of course. Which means that no woman drafted will be required to use lethal weapons unless she so volunteers - and women may take their choice of extending their ef- forts ln some ono of the organized branches for defense -the WomeIl's Royal Naval Service, the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, the WonHen's Land Army, and the rest--or they may serve in civil and industrial branches.
 But the point is, Bevln will be empowered to recruit women work CTS for English industries, which are so desperately undermanned.
 Beyln had from the beginning of the war one recurring nightmare the con3criptlon of women. ObVl- ously he was frightened of them and, like all men in hls position, he tried to disguise realistic facts with q too propritiary approach.
 The consequence is that Miss England ignored both his threats and promises and just waited to see what would happen, Meanwhile, the need for . further b00000 women did not grow any less and British war industries were elamorlng for more and still more workers.
 Red tape has been responsible to some extent for this state Of thing Employers have also been some. what to blame, eesirous of being spared the bother Of initiating new help.
 Some people thought that q vol. untary appeal, based on down.to- earth facts, would have brought ready response. Others favored compulsion from the start Every. one is unanimous, however, In de. clarlng that the system Of eall-up, followed by . "heart-to- -heart" in- teryiew and the subsequent cooling Of heels for more than 30 per cent of the intervieweeS was enough to quench the Rfdor Of even the most enthusiastic and patriotic. Clarity, organization and celerity would have worked wonders, but "baby. ing women was the wrong psycho- logical approach. Women arc too much part of this war to be spared any of It's more realistic aspects.
 It Is claimed that any big execu- tive will recognize and sometimes admit that an important enterprise would feel the loss Of the bosS's sec. retary perhaps even more so than that Of tho boss himself. Yet no one could dream of exempting typlsts md secretaries as q class In | ore sweeping gesture. From now oil, employers win have to justify their demand for exemption Of any women employees and will be liable to fines if it is proved their rep. resentation is inaccurate or un. ! founded. 1