HOSTELS AND GIRLS
By AMABEL WILLIAMS-ELLIS
EACH hostel holds a thousand women and girls ; there are four, five, sometimes seven, hostels in a group ; there are four or five such groups in England and Wales, perhaps more—there is official reticence regarding that, on security grounds. Everywhere the routine is much the same, for the factories work night and day and three shifts of human beings must minister. The girls climb into a row of waiting 'buses, clock in at the factory, work, eat during the brief factory break, climb into their 'buses again and back to the hostel for another meal, rest and bed.
It was with the expectation of finding something rigid, mechanical, even monstrous, and tolerable only as a war necessity, that I went and looked at seven such hostels, staying three days in one of them. There would, of course, I knew, be a certain decency (the large numbers allotted to " welfare " was a feature), and some attempt would be made to amuse the poor conscripts. A fellow-visitor had similar anticipations. " Till a cum a made sure t' place must be a barracks wi' so many! Many a time, puttin' t' dinner on t' table in Bradford a near cried thinking of our Maudie alone in such a place! " Invited to stay and to see for ourselves, Mrs. Hawks and I entirely revised our opinions. There are hostels that I have not seen, but of the seven (in two different parts of the country) that I have visited I can report that they are the nicest of clubs, that they represent real and varied experiments in communal living, and that the atmosphere is comparable to that of a summer-school or of a well- organised one-class cruise.
The source of hostel atmosphere is twofold. In the first place, each of those visited had been handed over for administration either to the Workers' Travel Association or to the Co-operative Holiday Guild, that is to people used to having to please and amuse their public, but also with a sense of social responsibility—some of their public have always wanted to enlarge their horizons. Men as well as women do this work. In the second place, first-rate architects with a real cultural background have been responsible for lay-out and decorative detail ; architects, moreover, with the soundest and most modern views on plumbing. The war forced an austerity on the architects that they (and I) enjoyed ; but, had the hostels not been a war-time measure, no doubt a little of what one might call " Sickertism " would have pleased the residents. Residents agree that the hostels are bright and pretty, that the chairs are comfortable and the little bedrooms for two beautifully planned. The state of the light-coloured decorations and curtains after six months of use (three-shift use) show that they have been, on balance, approved. (Experience is that people are not so reasonable and responsible in their care of material objects unless they like them.) Girls and women have come, or been drafted, to these hostels from all over the place and, had this interesting social experiment not been a by- product of war, it would have been interesting to see whether some of the home-sickness of most residents' first weeks could have been prevented by the actual framework within which the life of the place moves.
One homesick girl from Belfast spoke as if she were in a sense impatient with herself at not being able to take more advantage of many things the hostel had to offer. It was hard to be precise as to what was the matter ; the other -girls just said she would " get used to it." What was it, besides her familiar friends, that she missed? She could not put her finger on it, but remarked that, though the food was nice and there was plenty of it, she couldn't have a cup of tea just when she thought she would, and that, though all the buildings were kept so nice and warm, there wasn't a fire to poke. In peace-time this could have been remedied, not by the administration but by the architects, which might, or might not, have helped her. The size of the place and the many contacts were a relief to some. A London woman of about fifty (small, rather droop- ing with a singular look of sadness and resolution) told me that just now she could not stand either her own home or someone else's. She had been widowed by the last war and left with a little boy of two. This only son had now been eighteen months in Africa. " Always been plenty of time for something to happen between his writing and me getting it. Time passes best here."
Two very pretty girls whose energies were at the moment wholly bent upon the hostel carnival (the mayor of the local town was to open it, and daring costumes of crape paper were being secretively or ostentatiously confectioned in every corner) tossed their heads and told me that after London the place was " too quiet." The remark, being made in front of Mrs. Hawks, brought a storm about their charming ears. How the girls had the face to grumble she couldn't imagine! Mrs. Hawks went on to tell me how she came to be at the hostel. She had had two daughters here, but the elder one had been sent off on medical grounds. The younger, who was eighteen and had only come " for cumpany like," had thus been left to it. Mrs. Hawks, much worried, had got into correspondence with the matron of Maudie's sleeping-block, who had suggested that Mrs. Hawks could perhaps manage to come and sec for herself? This " best week's holiday in me life " with 'mother and daughter sharing a room was the result, and Mrs. Hawks and the matron were fast friends.
The matron's action seemed typical, for there is genuine con- sideration and sympathy. The atmosphere in the different hostels varies a little, just as do the sizes of the stages in the assembly-halls and the colour-schemes. One hostel, for instance, strikes a new- comer as easy and hospitable ; the emphasis is on dancing and the importation of 'bus-loads of R.A.F. or soldiers to dance with. In another there are dances, but there also a big choice of discussion- groups and travel-talks. One encouraged C.E.M.A., another tolerated E.N.S.A. (not liked by me or by the more fastidious residents). One specialised in homely, rather restful activities, such as W.V.S. (allot- ments and " make-and-mend " meetings) ; another was ambitiously running lectures and even a trip down a coal-mine. It seemed to me that the residents made rather less use of the more serious opportunities than would comparable groups of girls and women in engineering factories. But to discuss the validity of this impression and the reason for such a fact, if established, would take too much space.
Mrs. Hawks's and my conclusions about our dreaded hostels are, then, in brief, that they are very good. It is delightful to see so much intelligence applied, not as commonly in the war-effort to material objects (which, it seems to me, we handle with unparalleled skill), but to human beings. One of the first reflections that succeeds this one is regarding the many uses to which the hostels should be put after the war. Those who built or notv administer them all have their suggestions. These naturally vary according to the surround- ings—real country or somewhat industrialised. They include con- valescent homes, country holiday camps for families, holiday camps for children, and boarding schools. (From experience with evacuated children, I believe that health and knowledge would benefit enor- mously if all elementary school children had a year—three terms— at a boarding school. Board of Education officials when interviewed agreed that at least a term would be an excellent thing.) In one group there are seven large hostels. Thus it might be best—in view of local resources such as medical personnel and playing-field accom- modation—to use two hostels for one and two for another purpose. We all hoped that they would not be used, anyhow not many of them, and not for long, for the demobilisation of the army. Their con- struction is not, the architects think, robust enough to stand the amount of wear and tear to which troops seem to subject structures. These hostels could be a real national asset.
The fact that goods made of raw materials in short supply owing to war conditions are advertised in this journal should not be taken as an indication that they are necessarily available for export.
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