The Women's Land Army
There has been much disappointment at the Government's decision not to extend war annuities, granted on a reduced scale to members of the Civil Defence Services, to workers of the Women's Land Army. The decision is intelligible. There is no question of ex- tending the benefit to war-workers generally, men or women, though they may have been engaged on exacting terms in essential industry. Women of the W.L.A. have been working on the land. just as men have been doing, and the latter have advanced no claim to gratuities. It happens that the name of the organisation under which they have been enrolled bears the name "Army," but that does not alter the character of their work, which is that of agricultural workers.' They wear uniform. , but this again has no special reference to the nature of their service, and is simply a sensible dress for wearing on a farm. There are, however, two facts which differentiate them from male agricultural workers. Firstly, their rate of pay has been much lower, and on an average lower than it should have been in proportion to their services. Secondly, they are not, like most of the men, normally agricultural workers, but have in the majority of cases been moved from their home districts and put to a trade which for them is a blind alley. As compared with workers in essential industry, their rate of pay has been far lower. These are con- siderations which weigh in their favour-. It should be added that the sense of the community clearly supports them in their demand to share with Civil Defence workers the small reward of a gratuity- -a point to which no Government should be indifferent.
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