MR. PUNCH, DEAR SIR,--I am still with the Q.M.A.A.C.'s at what used
to be called the Front. But do not imagine I am cut off from news.
Papers from home pour in by every mail. I read articles written by
People Who Know, and speeches of politicians to female electors, and
that is how I have learned that it is we Women of England who have
won the War.
Yet out here one cannot help noticing that the War was not waged
entirely by the lovelier sex. And so I am writing to ask you to say
a word or two about the work of the Brother Service, the less
conspicuous branches of our army, the men who hauled big guns about,
who stood in trenches, who looked after ammunition, or who killed
mules to provide us with pressed beef. Little bits of the great
machinery--hangers-on of the great Women's Army Corps--yes, but
without the humble hairpin the whole coiffure falls to the ground.
I have never been a pessimist or a scaremonger, but _without some of
these men I don't believe we women would have won the War at all!_
They ought to be encouraged, Mr. Punch. Could you not start a Muscle
Competition for the men who helped the women win the War? Something
like the Beauty Competitions for us other warriors? Why not offer
prizes to the Tommy with the biggest biceps, the Subaltern with the
thickest calf, and the Brigadier with the finest abdominal
development?
One is so afraid that at the next European crisis the War Office,
having learned its history from picture papers, will simply mobilise
the women and forget all about the men. Those absurd machine guns
with their wobbly legs really need a man's touch. Besides, it would
be so jolly dull without them.
No, the men really helped, and we ought not to forget it.
I hope that in years to come, when little voices in the firelight
(that's a pretty touch--who says the Army has made us unfeminine?)
beseech me, "Tell us again how you won the War, Great-grandma," I
shall retain sufficient perspective to reply, "Granny didn't do it
all alone, darlings; there were a lot of men who helped too."
Yours faithfully,