The Domestic Help Prob'em
It is a good thing that Mr. Bevin has realised that domestic service is not always a luxury which can be lightly dispensed with. He is right if he holds, as doubtless he does, that women of all classes should equally be prepared to undertake the tasks necessary to keep households going. But the problem is not so simple as that. Scores of thousands of women engaged in war-work all day have to devote their scanty moments of leisure to the menial duties of a housewife. Scores of thousands of men, returning daily from the factories, find homes ill-provided to meet the simplest needs. Many -aged persons, scarcely capable of work, are in a pathetic plight because there is no one to help them. Women have been disposed to think that it is because the responsible Ministers are men that the importance of domestic work has not been realised in the allo- cation of services. But evidently light has been entering Mr. Bevin's mind. He said in the House of Commons on Tuesday that the time had come when the Government must try to organise a collective domestic help service. He was not yet ready to explain the scheme in detail, but he said that they were working on the district nurse conception, so that persons urgently needing domestic help in any district could obtain it. It is certainly time that some such service should be systematically organised and be made gener- ally available. Tolerable home conditions and proper rest are important factors in maintaining the nation's efficiency and morale, and cannot be left out of account in the distribution of labour.
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