PEEPS AT PARLIAMENT.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 250, 25 November 1914, Page 4

PEEPS AT PARLIAMENT.

THROUGH A WOMAN'S EYES

Last evening, in the Choral Ha.ll, Mrs Philip Snowden delivered an entertaining, and at the, same time instructive, lecture oh how Parliament looks through., the eyes of a woman. Mrs MeCdmbs, president of - the local WiC.T.U.,' occupied the chair, and the Mayoress, Mrs Holland, Mrs T. E. Taylor, and several other ladies were also on the platform. Mrs Snowden commenced by saying s that she hoped that the title of her lecture had not led; anyone into the belief that they we're going to hear a long disquisition on the constitution of Parliament and the government of the country, for she did not intend to speak of anything of the kind. It was her intention, instead, to take her hearers, { in imagination, with her to this House*! of Commons and the House of Lo/ds, and show them peeps at it from a woman 's viewpoint. She briefly sketched the beginning of Parliament, way back in the old Anglo-Saxon days of Edward the Confessor,, who, wishing to build a memorial ofsortie kind to a number, of -the wise men who represented the thinkers of the, age/- had built Westminster Abbey. That fie fright be near them he built a long, low building that was: then known as the Palace of Westminster. Bufus, the Red King, built a magnificent addition in the Westminster Hall, which still stands. With these exceptions, however, Parliament, although a very old institution, was boused in comparatively new buildings,' for the magnificent structure on the , banks of the Thames was built as recently as in the time of Queen Victoria, at a cost of Something like £2,000,000, 1 The speaker proceeded -ib describe the Parliamentary buildingfe,, and the formalities to be observed by . any woman desiring to obtain admission. The formalities which have to be observed before the member of Parlia'ment whom it is desired to see can be

.located, are evidently many and varied, and even when he materialises the visitor's troubles are by 110 means over. If she .carries a baig she must submit to having it searched, for suffragette ammunition may lurk therein. After every bit of red-tape has been noted and 'every regulation observed, she enters the; House, but she may not sit with the member of Parliament who is her escort. She must repair to hexown "cage," and view proceedings merely through a grille. The position and .construction of the ladies 1 gallery is such that only the few who are right in the front can see and hear anything at all.

Mrs Snowden sketched, in inimitably, •clever and witty word-pictures, the personalities oC many of the iihportant British Parliamentarians who, to many of us who are colonials, have hitherto been nothing more than names. The lecturer, during the brief period which she devoted to them/ made them live in the ittiaginations of the audience by meaiis of her graphic phraseology. Her mimicry of their mannerisms, her crisp little anecdotes which so subtly • conveyed the personal touch, the spontaneous humtiur of the recital —unsullied, it must be added, by any touch of bitterness or malice—made this part of the lecture the most delightful, of all. She touched on Mr Lloyd George, the great' Welshman, whom "people either love very much, or else they want to boil' him in oil"; the Prime Minister, Mr Asquith, the "brilliant and gifted lawWhose speeches are always the speeches of a brilliant lawyer s '; Mr Balfour, "who attracts attention more than anything else by reason of his intellectual gymnastics, and who is so expert in these exercises that even his j closest political friends never know 1 exactly where he is"; Austen Chamberlain, "the distinguished son of- a distinguished father, who- does not consider that women:. should have the vote." Asked once for his.reasons, he said, " Well; do you know, I never believed in votes for women, and . the longer I live the less I believe in it." "Wasn't that a-brilliant reason?''inquired Mrs Snowden. ' She also spoke of John Burfts, N that bluff, blunt Socialist, who yet has a profound vein of egotism and a most comforting sense of his own value. These were just a very few of whom , Mrs Snowden spoke and reminiscensed last evening

At the close the speaker said that perhaps it might have seemed as if she had been making fun of an institution which she revered and loved. It was because her "fanny bone'* was developed that she could not help seeing the humorous side of things, .even of such a grand thing as the British Parliament. She recognised it, however, as the cradle of a great democracy, and with thankfulness she mentioned, the fact that'politics were bo longer looked upon as a gr.me, but "as ■ a 'serious responsibility. In the, world "Of parliament . there ■ Vere still many things that might be remedied and'improved, and perhaps, when women obtained the vote, those defects might be abolished. She envied the women of Zealand their franchise privileges, but hoped that the struggle which Englishwomen were experiencing for % the recognition of their rights would not Toe without benefit to them in the days to come. The usual votes of thanks, which were carried in a singularly, hearty* manner, concluded the meeting.