LORD GLASGOW AND THE SUFFRAGETTES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 13, 16 January 1911, Page 6

LORD GLASGOW AND THE SUFFRAGETTES.

LADY STOUTS REPLY. (From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, December 9. Lord Glasgow, who, as Governor of New Zealand, gave the Royal assent of the bill which gave the New Zealand women the vote, is strongly opposed to the principle of woman's .suffrage. He has just sent the following letter to .bady Jersey, one of the leaders of the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League: "Lear Lady 'jersey,—l am extremely Borry .that my engagements will not admit of my attending the meeting of the N.A.W.S. League, called for December 6. It is a subject on which I have always taken a great interest since the day on which as Governor of New Zealand, it was my duty to give the Royal Assent to the bill for enfranchising women. The more I have studied the question the more I am convinced that it would be deplorable if ever such a measure became law in uhie country, and I therefore welcome the amalgamation of the different leagues, and the adoption of a constitution, and I earnestly wish all success to the anti-suffrage movement."

The fact that Lord Glasgow disagrees with them, however, is not likely to depress unduly the advocates of votes for women.

Lady Stout has published in the "Times" a mordant attack against Lord Glasgow's attack on women's suffrage:— "1 wish to protest on behalf of the women and the men of New Zealand .against the insulting (intimation contained in a letter writ'ien by Lord Glaegow to the 'Anti-Women's Suffrage League' "Lord Glasgow does not give any reasons (anti-suffragists never do), but he insinuates that the suffrage has had deplorable results in New Zealand—which is absolutely untrue. "The fact of Lord Glasgow having given the Royal Assent to the Smirage Bill does not entitle him to speak with authority on the subject. The law clerk who drafted the bill did more.

"Lord Glasgow has not been in the Dominion for 14 years. We ihave only had the suffrage 17 years. Lord Glasgow cannot .have studied the subject from practical experience, but must ha-vo formed aaa opinion from the only persons who do not value the suffrage—namely, people who deplore the temperate and moral habits of the people and who object to giving decent wages to their workpeople. "No New Zealand man or woman has ever produced any evidence against the suffrage. Lord Glasgow does not attempt to do so, and yet he insults the -women of a colony where he spent six years as representative of our late Queen Victoria."