WOMEN'S LAND ARMY

HL Deb 26 January 1943 vol 125 cc743-57

LORD BINGLEY rose to call attention to the conditions and deficient equipment of the Women's Land Army; and to move for Papers. The noble Lord said: My Lords, we turn to a very different subject from the one we have been discussing. Your Lordships who are familiar with country life and the conditions of transport at the present time, are aware of the wonderfully good work which the Women's Land Army is doing to supplement the very great shortage of labour upon the land. It has been very highly praised by the Minister. The Minister has appealed for a large increase in the numbers of the Women's Land Army which is actually the only reserve of labour which the land can hope to call upon as available now. All over the country these girls are milking, feeding stock, pulling turnips, driving tractors, thrashing and doing all the operations of farm-work, except the very heaviest, and doing it extremely well in all weathers, in deep mud or snow and wet and cold, in the darkness of the early morning, and very often having the roughest accommodation in remote villages and farmhouses with few opportunities for drying their clothes which are wet through at the end of the day's work. I know that in some counties, too, they are working under constant danger of bombing and machine-gun fire.

In spite of all these difficulties and drawbacks the Women's Land Army is carrying on, and carrying on well. These girls are often townbred. They have been working in factories and shops and are unaccustomed to country conditions, but they are doing good work now after having exchanged the pavements for mud. The conditions under which they are working are entirely different from anything to which they have been accustomed in the past. Compared with other women's services they have undoubtedly greater hardship and discomfort to bear; yet in many respects they seem to be treated with far less consideration than is shown to the other services which work under sheltered conditions in protected places, under cover, and which are given full equipment in the way not only of garments we see but every sort of garment we do not see which it would be highly improper for me to discuss in your Lordships' House. Members of the Women's Land Army for the first month of engagement, at any rate in the earlier stages of the organization, were refused anything like complete equipment, although the work they were doing in that first month was the same as regards discomfort as they would do later on. No doubt it was natural to desire to see whether women would continue with their work or retire. The fact remains that many women have worked for months with no greatcoats, with very little change of clothing, with boots that let in water, with mackintoshes that leak. I can tell your Lordships of an instance of girls working on a tractor without greatcoats while the man training them had two coats and wore both of them, and he told me that he certainly wanted both in the bitter north-east wind that was blowing. Yet these girls went on with their training. Their health suffered and I am surprised that it did not suffer more.

I am glad to say that the agitation which has been going on all over the country to improve conditions of equipment has had considerable effect and that a large amount of equipment is promised. Undoubtedly there was a shortage of material and obviously that is going to be the answer of the Government, but if there was a shortage why was it not possible to share the available material between all the women's services? Why was the whole shortage thrown on the Women's Land Army while the other services could get full equipment? The Minister is asking for a great increase in recruits for the Women's Land Army and I hope he will get them, but by far the greatest inducement he can put forward is to give an assurance that this unfair treat- ment will not recur. Everybody knows that there has been a shortage of rubber and leather, but I say that the available supply could have been equally shared and the shortage not thrown, as was apparently the case, almost entirely on this particular branch of women's service. We must remember as I said before, that the conditions tinder which these girls are working are very much harder as regards work in cold weather and so on than conditions in the other services. No doubt I shall be told that these women have clothing coupons, and in that matter have an advantage over women in the other services who have to give up the whole of their clothing coupon. But the members of the Women's Land Army were ordered at first to give up thirty-six coupons and, although coupons have been issued for them for replacements, that was done only after a very acrimonious correspondence, which I am told involved 250,000 letters, and after the dismissal of some of the girls. Then they got their coupons back but still they had to pay for articles which in the other services are supplied by the Government. I do not think that is a matter in which the Board of Trade has appeared at its best or its brightest.

There is another matter to which I wish to call attention. Cases have been reported in the newspapers lately of women who have previously worked on the land enrolling or attempting to enrol in the Women's Land Army but not being allowed to join the Women's Land Army and therefore not being entitled to receive any equipment at all. I must admit there may be a case for refusing to give them equipment if, from their own choice, they have been working on farms, because presumably they had the equipment they required, but: in view of the fact that many of them are getting seriously dissatisfied I think that consideration might be given to replacing boots, mackintoshes and other things which they require and which wear out as time goes on. These women have formed a very valuable element in the working labour on farms and some concession of that sort would be of value in keeping them working. In many cases also the Ministry of Labour seems to have been very remiss in carrying out the rule that women working on the land cannot be taken into the other services. I have heard of women working on the land who have been removed to other occupations because they were not in the Women's Land Army although some of them were valuable workers. In regard to equipment I wish to say at once that the situation has improved and that there are more promises of equipment.

But there are other points of criticism. For instance, members of the Women's Land Army apparently were prohibited from using canteens and, even though the prohibition has been withdrawn, they still do not get full privileges. They are not able to buy chocolates and cigarettes and other things they want in the canteen while the women in the other services are able to do so. Moreover, they have to supply a list of canteens which they wish to enter and make a statement of the probable number of women in the area who want to use the canteens. In all these respects a distinction has been drawn between girls in the Women's Land Army and girls in the other services. There are many complaints also that when they get to the canteens they are not at all welcome. Perhaps the Government cannot be blamed for that, but I think that the people who run these places ought to see that full encouragement is given to the members of the Women's Land Army. The position in regard to N.A.A.F.I. canteens is somewhat different, because these girls are not enrolled members of the Forces. There is another matter also, and that is the question of honours. In the last Honours List one or two honours went to women of the other services, but nothing to the Women's Land Army. I do not suggest that the people running the Women's Land Army want honours at all, and I do not suggest that you should give an honour to the girl who milked the most cows or pulled the most turnips, but I do suggest that there might be some sort of group recognition. If it is possible for His Majesty to give the George Cross to Malta, would not it be possible to give the O.B.E. to, say, the women war workers in Kent? Is that an impossible idea?

As regards office and orderly staff the Women's Land Army has not been allowed to select or appoint its own. It has been allowed only to enrol farm workers, and so far as typists, cooks and so on are concerned, who are required at the hostels and elsewhere, the Women's Land Army has had to take what the other services did not want. That has now been modified to a certain extent, and only last week an order was issued allowing it to appoint its own cooks. I hope that it will soon be allowed to appoint its own typists and other office staff as well. That may be one reason why some of the offices, including even the headquarter office, seemed in the past to be rather lacking in efficiency, and why some of the country offices seem to find it so difficult to answer letters and to deal with the various complaints and other matters which arise.

Then there is the question of enrolment. At the beginning of the war, the Ministry of Labour allowed 28,000 members to be enrolled for the Women's Land Army, although at that time work could be found for only 9,000. It would have been far better merely to register them, and not to enrol them and then keep them waiting and disappointed until work could be found for them. Later on that was recognized, and enrolment was stopped, although a certain number were allowed to be registered. Then, when the Minister appealed for an increase in the Women's Land Army, and the restriction was removed, those who had been registered and who were waiting to serve were found to have been, to a large extent, taken away by the Ministry of Labour and enrolled in other services. I maintain that that was a distinct breach of the understanding that women workers who were prepared to work on the land should not be taken away and put to something else.

We must recognize that food production is a matter of enormous importance in winning the war, and should not be treated as something of no significance. There should be no unfairness in dealing with it. I do not want to be unfair, or to seem to be unfair, to those who are controlling the organization. They have had a great deal of hard work, and have been doing a most difficult job, for the most part unpaid; and I think the country owes a very great debt of gratitude to all the ladies who have done so much to produce the wonderful result of there being now 53,000 girls working in the Women's Land Army, with the prospect of a great many more. It is an enormous job and it is becoming too big for the existing organization. To organize girls of all ages, sizes and traditions, scattered over remote farms, is a stupendously difficult task, and I can well understand that it has been difficult to make a tidy job of it. The time has come, however, when we want something more than what has largely been an amateur organization. We want a different and a better organization. If the W.R.N.S., the A.T.S. and the other women's services can be linked up with a definite Government office, as they are, why cannot the Women's Land Army be more definitely linked to the Ministry of Agriculture, with its head on the staff of the Ministry, and with a more official organization altogether?

In addition to that, the Women's Land Army should have an office which is more accessible. At present they are based on an office which is a long way from many parts of the country. It is extremely difficult for people in the Midlands or in the North to visit the head office in Sussex. It will be obvious, therefore, that very often difficulties which might be very small have become very much greater. Personal consultation is of enormous value in cases of that kind. The Post Office seems to have found the office rather remote, judging by the difficulty which one has in getting replies to letters.

I have perhaps delayed your Lordships too long, but I do want to add this. These girls have helped to save the agricultural situation. As President Roosevelt said a short time ago, a good food supply is one of the primary essentials in waging war. We owe a great deal to these girls; at least let us make sure that they are treated fairly. Let us make sure that there is no unfair discrimination between them and the other women's services. If we can have an assurance of that kind as a result of this debate, and if we can be assured that consideration will be given to their difficulties, and the promise given that those difficulties shall not recur, I think that my Motion will have been justified. I beg to move for Papers.

LORD CORNWALLIS

My Lords, I am extremely grateful, as I know many others will be, to my noble friend Lord Bingley for having brought this Motion before your Lordships' House. I am chairman of a war agricultural committee which employs 900 of these girls, and we have over 3,200 of them in the county. I yield to no one in my admiration for what these girls have done; their work has been quite amazing, and the food could not have been produced without them. I hope that all your Lordships realize that. I want to make it perfectly clear that nothing I say is intended in any way to cast any reflection on those who have been arranging and managing the organization and administration of the Women's Land Army. They have had to fight for everything they have got, when they ought to have been put on an A1 priority list. The county committees of the Women's Land Army, if they are anything like our own, have been absolutely first-class. They may be amateurs, but they have worked in the closest cooperation with the war agricultural committees and they have done a splendid job of work. Some of us who have been in agriculture for the past twenty-five years, and perhaps longer, are becoming quite accustomed to being put at the bottom of the list so far as national and political consideration is concerned. Lord Bingley has referred to this as it affects the girls in the Women's Land Army. In spite of that treatment, I make bold to say that the agricultural community of this country have done the biggest job of any on the Home Front. Although the Women's Land Army may not be so large in numbers as the other women's services, I am not sure that they have not equally done the biggest job of any of the women's services on the Home Front; but they are learning what it is to inherit the traditions of an industry that is trèated as a Cinderella, and they have been in the past treated as Cinderellas in such matters as equipment, health services, compensation, amenities and so on.

I want to draw the attention of your Lordships to one thing which I hope in the past two days has been put right. I trust that it will never occur again. I refer to the initial medical inspection of these girls. Until two days ago the girls had to pay their own fees for their medical inspection. In most cases they would probably go to their panel doctor, who would say: ''Yes, a life in the open air would do you good." If I were to show your Lordships some of the results of that totally haphazard and inadequate medical inspection, I think you would be horrified. By not having a proper medical inspection of these girls, and proper medical officers appointed for them, the country has ruined the health of a great many of them. This is the only form of national service which has not so far had its own medical officers, yet it is a service which demands the highest standard of physical capabilities. It is not a service where the members of it sit in an office all day long with central heating. In Scotland medical attendance has been provided, I believe, since the beginning, but it has taken us three and a quarter years of war here in England to get something for which the committees have been asking for at least two years, and that is that the Government should pay the initial medical expenses of inspection.

I want also to refer to the subject of housing. These girls often work in outlying districts and in out-of-the-way places, many miles from the nearest town, or even from the nearest village. They often work on land that the war agricultural committees have had to take over, on which there are no buildings of any description and no houses anywhere near. When we can find an empty house and when a hostel can be built we do arrange hostel accommodation. And again I am thankful to hear that at long last, after two years of requests, the Land Army is now going to be allowed to engage a special branch to provide the domestic staffs of these hostels. The staffing of these hostels has been an impossible task. Land girls who were unable to go out to work were not allowed to remain on the staff in these hostels; they were pushed out somewhere else. I am delighted to hear that at last that is to be put right.

I must say a word or two about the equipment. Again I am not blaming those who are organizing the Women's Land Army. They have had to struggle and fight and beg for everything they were given, and what Lord Bingley has told you is perfectly true, that for the first month a girl is not given her equipment in case she might resign or something of that kind. I know of one county—not my own—where they have only had one per cent. of resignations. All I can say is that it says a good deal for the girls' courage and cheerfulness, because to send out a girl for her first month with only about a quarter of her equipment, and when she is not used to the work, and has not been used to outdoor work at all, seems to me to be asking for absolutely first-class trouble. I should like some of your Lordships to see the thrashing girls—and we have got 600 of them manning the thrashing machines in my county— with two aertex shirts with short sleeves thrashing six days a week. Can you imagine what it is like, with two shirts, thrashing a dirty wheat stack in the last few days? Those shirts have got to be washed at the end of a single day and they are no good at the end of a fortnight. They really ought to have more equipment than the other services and, quite frankly, when one sees the beautiful way in which the recruiting advertisements are drawn out, and a whole trousseau displayed in a window in a street of what is given in other services, it just makes these Land Army girls' mouths water. However, I hope as a result of this debate something will happen.

May I say a word about welfare? The W.L.A. is a scattered body, and the proper supervision of its welfare is an extremely difficult proposition. The district representatives of the W.L.A. Committees have done a wonderful job, but we are in the fourth winter of war and Lord Bingley has told you there are 53,000 now. The Minister of Agriculture has asked for that number to be doubled. I would only ask the authorities to consider whether the time has not come now for a trained welfare staff to be appointed of people who properly understand welfare.

As regards the terms of their general service, every girl who is enrolled has to be mobile. She has to go anywhere she may be sent. They are very often sent very long distances. In my own county in the south we have girls from as far away as Northumberland and Durham; and, having got them, there is no legal hold on those girls. It is supposed to be a Women's Land Army; but they can give one week's notice to their employer and they go to a labour exchange and are promptly diverted to other employment. Perhaps those girls get disheartened—they have not got their equipment, or they do not think their work is appreciated, so perhaps after two years' training they give one week's notice and go to other employment. Do you honestly think that is the best way to make the proper use of the woman-power in this country? It seems to me to be rather a waste of good talent.

May I give an instance of the conditions? There is no promotion. You cannot become a corporal or a sergeant, or better yourself, in the Women's Land Army. There is no extra pay for efficiency. Unless your private employer or your war agricultural committee takes the trouble to find out whether a girl is really efficient, and whether she deserves something more, and should be given some incentive, a girl after two months' service can draw just as much as a girl with two years' service. I should like to give some figures of a demonstration we had the other day of all sorts of farm work. The judges were hard-bitten, knowledge able farmers. There were 131 girls who got the first-class certificate—that is, 90 out of 100 marks; 255 got the second-class certificate, 75 to 89 out of 100 marks; and 87 girls got the third-class certificate, that is, over 50 per cent. All I can tell you is that after several thousand farmers had seen those demonstrations there was not a single recruit unabsorbed in our county within three weeks. We are trying to see that those girls who got those certificates are getting extra remuneration. But there is no incentive for them, and no promotion. It is small wonder that these girls, after working two years, wish to leave and try something else. This matter is so important if we are going to get the food that I felt I must bring up the few points that I have put before your Lordships.

I trust that all the Ministries—because this is not only a question of the Ministry of Agriculture: the equipment is probably a matter for the Ministry of Supply and the service terms one for the Ministry of Labour—I do trust that they all realize, or will begin to realize soon, that this body is a vital service. They may not be able to be put on the same basis for equipment as the other women's services, but cannot they be given something by way of a "perk," if I may use that term? They do not get travelling fares, they do not get all kinds of other things which girls get in other services. I should like finally to suggest to the Ministry that they hold a conference soon and get hold of the people who have worked with these girls on the county committees and ask them what is really wanted to put the Women's Land Army on a proper basis. It is quite unfair to leave one unfortunate small organization in a country house to deal with all the troubles that arise. I should like the other Ministries called to that conference so that they may understand exactly what the difficulties are.

As Lord Bingley has told your Lord-ships, in my part of the country these girls have not only done a wonderful job, but they have shown the utmost bravery under fire. I use the words "under fire" in absolutely their fullest sense. We have had these land girls shot up, we have had them wounded and all that sort of thing, and they deserve very much better treatment than they have had in the past. The country wants to keep the girls they have got, and I am sorry to tell your Lordships that last month there was a record number of resignations in my own county. The labour situation in agriculture, if it is anything like in other parts of the country what it is in my own area, is going to be very serious. It is not only essential to keep the land girls that we have, but to double their number. If we do not get the numbers we need, I make this blunt statement that the nation will not get the food. Therefore I am grateful to Lord Bingley for having brought this Motion up, and I hope that the result will be the Land Army will be put on a proper footing and in the position it should be.

THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY OF THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES (THE DUKE OF NORFOLK)

My Lords, I am grateful to Lord Bingley for putting down this Motion to-day so that we may discuss this very important army of the land. The two speeches we have had have been made by men who are not only fully acquainted with the agricultural problem but with the Women's Land Army itself. Lord Cornwallis speaks for the County of Kent which employs more members of the Women's Land Army than any other county, if you take Yorkshire as three Ridings. Although some of your Lordships may think that the picture has been painted rather black, the noble Lord, Lord Bingley, himself answered more or less satisfactorily the questions he raised. I shall start with what is the main bone of contention, and probably the point that creates most of the misunderstandings. We must appreciate that the functions and administrative system of the Land Army are altogether different from those of the three auxiliary women's services. These services were, at the commencement of the war brought into being purely as new forms of women's service in order to replace and supplement various jobs which could not be done by the men. The Women's Land Army is recruited by the State, but its; members are not in very large numbers employed by the State. I emphasize this point because so many of the Women's Land Army are employed just as ordinary men and women in the industry of agriculture, which is a civilian occupation. It is not possible under these conditions to arrange that the girls should be given a week's holiday at a certain period of the year. You cannot in agriculture definitely say that people can have their holidays at regular intervals. Therefore I must definitely stress that the Land Army, however vital and important it is, has in no way the same status as the auxiliary women's services associated with the Fighting Forces.

Some people have got another misapprehension regarding enrolments. I would assure your Lordships that any remarks which are heard on this subject come entirely from outsiders. We never hear complaints, or practically never, from the volunteers themselves, because the matter is fully explained to them before they enrol. Your Lordships will be aware that in 1942 the Land Army trebled its own size, and in spite of the heavy demands on labour, it was at no time short of volunteers. The service is, in fact, extremely popular with the younger women. In spite of the fact that only one in three of the volunteers is accepted, because of the physical standard needed for this work, the Land Army was never short. Last September, when the number of volunteers waiting to be taken on was too great owing to the falling off in the demand at the end of the agricultural year, a certain amount of recruiting had to be restricted for a period. We had at that time 5,000 more volunteers than we could place on the farms. Therefore the Ministry of Labour, which co-ordinates the labour of the country, consulted with my Department, and we agreed that for a period recruiting should cease. However, with the substantial number which we now have, and with the reserve of 5,000 fully placed, the restriction has been repealed except in a very small area where a very large number of industrial people are needed for other services.

The noble Lord in moving the Motion raised the point of domestic duty. This proposal has been the subject of discussions between my Department and the Ministry of Labour for a considerable time, but it must be remembered that there are a large number of hostels for transferred war workers other than Land Army hostels, and it was not considered that the equipment of domestic workers as uniformed services for one of these sections only could be accepted. It has very often happened recently that where a girl has been enrolled in the Land Army, and is found to be not physically fit to carry out the work, she is retained by the Land Army and given work within the hostel. I am hopeful that this new arrangement will do away with some of the current difficulties. Another point the noble Lord raised was that of admission to canteens. This is also a matter on which there has been a certain amount of consultation. As a result of representations made by my Department to the Service Department, it has been agreed that all members of the Women's Land Army in uniform will be admitted to canteens which are established for the Forces and operated by the voluntary organizations, where accommodation is possible and where the Land Army make representations to be allowed to use them. For that reason the lists which Lord Cornwallis mentioned were got out by each county committee, and no canteen on any of these lists has refused admittance to members of the Land Army. So far as I am aware we have had no complaints lately on the use of these canteens.

I now come to the real motive behind the Motion we are discussing to-day, and that is uniform and equipment. The equipment given to members of the Land Army when they join is not intended as a complete outfit of clothing, but it is intended to provide the essential articles of working kit required for the work that these various girls have to carry out. It is after that that the articles are supplemented. I am informed that as a rule this has been satisfactory, but I will take this opportunity, if I may, of saying that it is the earnest desire of His Majesty's Government that every possible comfort and equipment will be issued to members of the Women's Land Army and, realizing as we do the importance of their work in this campaign, I do hope that we shall not have the troubles which we have had previously. I am perfectly aware of the very serious shortage of certain equipment during the summer of the past year, but I must remind your Lordships of the great difficulties we were faced with when we lost practically all our resources of raw rubber and cotton. The cotton delayed all deliveries of the essential items of the uniform such as shirts, breeches, dungarees and greatcoats and all contracts for mackintoshes and gumboots had suddenly to be cancelled.

Two items in particular have been criticized in more places than one. In regard to this I have to say that the light-weight mackintosh which was issued to the members of the Land Army at first served its purpose satisfactorily. It was light and easy to work in, but unfortunately it was found to deteriorate very quickly. A new Navy type oilskin has been produced which is considered to be completely waterproof, but it has the disadvantage that it will be much more heavy to work in. I think the Land Army boots were referred to by the noble Lord who moved the Motion. I can assure him that they are made of the best leather that is procurable at this time, and if the two pairs of boots which are issued to the Land Army are kept properly greased they should withstand as much water as any boot that is made to-day.

I would not like your Lordships to think for one moment that I am trying to minimize the period of difficulties and shortcomings through which we have passed. Various suggestions have been made in the speeches to which we have listened and I will pass these on to the right quarter, but I would emphasize that these troubles which have been raised, most of them I think by the noble Lord who moved this Motion, have, I think the noble Lord himself will agree, been answered. There was one suggestion which the noble Lord made who moved the Motion; it was that women who were employed on the land before the war were not now either allowed to join the Land Army or in some places had been taken away from the land and put by the Ministry of Labour into other industries. That is complete news to me and if the noble Lord would be good enough to give me any details I will certainly have inquiries made. It is perfectly true people who worked on the land before the war are not allowed to join the Land Army because we consider these people were part and parcel of agriculture. The suggestion which the noble Lord made about extra coupons I will certainly ask the Minister to consider, but I shall be pleased if he will give me details as we have a strict understanding that no one working on the land is transferred to another industry. If there are any questions which I have not answered I hope your Lordships will bring them to my notice.

In conclusion I would like to pay my own personal tribute to the very great army of landworkers who, as the noble Lord said, come from the towns and the big cities of this country. They live in surroundings and conditions that are entirely new to them. They work in the food production campaign, in rain and wind, in stormy weather, in heat and in cold, in the black-out of the early morning and the black-out at night, and we owe them a very great debt indeed. My right honourable friend the Minister who has appealed for more workers in this next year will. I know, at the end of the war, pay the tribute that I have paid and which everyone on the land deserves.

LORD BINGLEY

My Lords, I should like to thank the Minister for his very sympathetic reply and for his full recognition of the great hardships that the members of the Women's Land Army have had to go through and the difficulties they have had to face. I also thank him for his assurance that the sort of thing that I have complained about is not going to happen again. I am sure what he has said will do a great deal to cheer up the members of the Women's Land Army and I hope the result of this debate will be to encourage theta to increased effort.

Motion for Papers, by leave, withdrawn.