THE DOMESTIC SERVANTS' ASSOCIATION.
[To TES EDITOR Or TER SPICOTATOR."
SIR,—In the list of women's vocations in which unemployment and distress exist, domestic service must not be forgotten.
Retrenchment first takes place in the home, and, in consequence, many families are already reducing the number of their domestic staff, and still more will probably do so within the coming months. At the same time, there is an entire absence of organization in domestic service. Whatever distress there may be will therefore be more acutely felt than would be the case if some machinery existed for dealing with unemployment amongst servants.
The Domestic Servants' Insurance Society (which is the parent body of the Association on whose behalf we are writing) has unique opportunities for remedying this state of affairs, as it is a registered Friendly Society composed of over seventy thousand women domestic servants, and we therefore feel it our duty to take action at this moment in the interests not only of our members, but of domestic servants as a class. We propose to open forthwith a Bureau for the following purposes: (a) To ascer- tain how much unemployment exists among domestic servants and how it is distributed ; (b) to give training in domestic economy to the younger and more untrained section of servants ; (c) to train and place a number of suitable girls (unemployed servants) as emergency nurses for hospital work so as to meet the grave shortage at present existing; (d) to endeavour to find main- tenance at least for those for whom employment or training cannot be provided.
We do not propose to add to the large number of existing Com- mittees, and we hope that our Bureau will be able to work in conjunction with the different organizations already dealing with the collection and administration of relief funds. We now appeal to the public in general, and to domestic servants in particular, for contributions to enable us to carry out this useful work. Those servants who are secure in a good situation will, we hope, send what they can afford to assist their follow-workers in distress. By their aid we hope to relieve, and, better still, to prevent, unem- ployment among this class of women workers. Donations should be sent to the Domestic Servants' Association, 62 Portland Place, W.
1Ve are also prepared to receive applications for advice and assistance from unemployed workers and from employers and others interested.—We are, Sir, &c. (for the Domestic Servants' Association), CONSUELO MARLBOROUGH. MARY ST. RESTER.
MAUD SRLBORNE. CiERTRUDE EMNOTT. 52 Portland Place. W.
[We are glad to publish this useful appeal, for while Lord Knutsford, in his letter to Wednesday's Times, denies that there is any shortage among hospital nurses, the signatories of this letter in Friday's Times stick to their point.—ED. Spectator.]
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