(3) To render legal aid and give advice to members, and to benefit generally the clerical and secretarial profession for women. (4) To maintain a registry for women clerks and secretaries, and to watch for openings for members of the Association. (5) To establish and maintain an Approved Society under the National Insurance Act, 1911, for the benefit of Women Clerks and Secretaries. The Association is not yet, however, strong enough to form a recognised union able to fix a minimum education qualification for membership. An important conference was held by this Association in May last at the University of London. Every speaker emphasised the need for better and wider education before taking up the profession, and there was unanimity of opinion that no girl should be allowed to start the technical part until she was at least sixteen. A remark of Mrs W.L. Courtney, who was one of the speakers, is well worth quoting: "One of the cleverest women I ever knew, who was an amateur indexer, said to me one day, 'It does not matter in doing this work about being clever; what matters is to have lived.'" There is not much chance then for the school-girl of sixteen.[4] The National Union of Clerks is conducted with energy and enlightenment. It has increased its membership by nearly 8,000 in the last twelve months, and one of the best reasons it offers women clerks for joining, is that it is the only National Society for Clerks that has always accepted women as members on equal terms as men. There are 1,000 women in a membership of 10,000. Notwithstanding the hard work these two societies are doing, there is nothing like the response there should be from women clerks. It is only the exceptional woman clerk who has yet developed anything like a corporate conscience. The reason is partly that she is often an isolated being. Where there is a large number of clerks together, as in the Civil Service, there is no lack of the right spirit.