Inquiries made amongst leaders of the Domestic Servants' Union and other organizations dealing with women labour do not indicate that there is a greater supply of household servants at home notwithstanding the present lack of employment in other branches of women's work. Many reasons are given for this. One is that the absorption of every kind of woman worker in the manufacture of munitions during the war, the high Wages then paid, and the absolute freedom enjoyed in the intervals of work have created a widespread dislike of domestic service, because it imposes restrictions not experienced in other work. As a result of contrasting' the conditions of outside employment with domestic service, many young women who gave up housework for the mill or the munition factory will not return to their former occupation, and few who have never been "in service" can be induced to undertake it.
The great majority of domestic servants come from country districts. They are the daughters of women who themselves have been in domestic service and have married, and: who wish for nothing better for their girls than that they should follow in their own footsteps. The townbred girl, with so many distractions at hand, only goes out as a domestic servant as a last resource. One woman worker of wide experience pointed out that when people spoke of the large number of unemployed: women who might go into domestic service they forgot that efficient w in a household could only be given by trained servants, and that it was useless when a lady applied to the Labour Exchange for a servant, to send her a skilled typist or ledger clerk. Against the objections raised to domestic service it was admitted that conditions had greatly improved of late, and that in the great majority of cases girls were' well treated and lived in comfortable homes, with reasonable opportunities for recreation and liberty.
A great improvement in the scn-
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