THERE is something uncommonly shabby about the way in which
a great number of young girls who come across from the Continent, to live au pair with English families and improve their English, are being treated. They come in good faith, prepared to help with the housework and the children in exchange for their keep and some pocket money; but•I believe that too many of them land up as skivvies. A correspondent has written to tell me about a German girl who found herself with a widower and his family of four children, in the status of Victorian slavey. She was expected to work from seven in the morning until nine at night; during the period of three weeks which she spent with this family she had one half-day off. Otherwise she had barely time to write home, let alone to read or to study. For the first week she was paid E2 10s. and when she then suggested that she might work slightly shorter hours a charwoman was engaged for some of the work. In fact her hours remained practically unchanged, but her 'pay' came down to £1 10s. And-this in a family enjoying a really high standard' of living. I don't like to think of the cumulative effect of this kind of thing upon opinion abroad. * * •
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