WIRELESS AND W.A.A.F.'S
SIR,—Round pegs in square holes are doubtless inevitable in these days. But that is no reason against readjusting pegs and holes wherever possible.
A number of young women with Honours Degrees in Arts subjects joined the W.A.A.F. They were asked to apply for a technical course about which practically no information was given them. They found eventually that they were committed to an arduous University course in advanced wireless, where several years' normal work was to be crammed into ten months. They were not afraid of that, in spite of their un- familiarity with the subject, and, being intelligent, they are doing very well on " theory." But the snag is this. They find to their consternation that they are booked to become wireless mechanics. Some of them have very little mechanical sense or manipulative ability, and in spite of sincere efforts cannot acquire it. Their case is, of course, quite understandable, and a simple psychological test would presumably have revealed it. But " the authorities " seem disinclined to believe in their sincerity and, if they do not pass their practical tests, it is suggested that they will just have to go on " until they do." Requests to be transferred and applications to be allowed to volunteer, e.g., for U.N.R.R.A., are ignored.
One feels that, if the able people who run this great organisation were aware of this particular problem, they would do something about it.
That is my excuse for writing.—Yours, &c., M.A., OxoN.
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