WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 172, 22 July 1922, Page 12

WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT.

! (To the Editor.. Sir, —Like you* correspondent "Briti ish Suffrage Woitaaf," I took exception i to Miss Constaam Clyde's opinions on 1 the abov* eubject, and still more so to : those contained in her reply in your r issue of the 14th inst. Your contribuf tor considers that the women of Great - Britaia (ire more advanced politically > than ik* women of New Zealand. Is . she quite sure of that? Universal - adult suffrage has been the law here - for nearly 30 years; the people of Great • Britain have. not got it yet. Only a ; section of the women there —those over i 30—are permitted to vote, a big differ- • ehce to begin with. It ie true we have no women M-P.'s here as yet. There i has only been one election sinco our women gained the right to sit in Parliament, but does Miss Clyde seriously ' contend that Lady Actor and Mrs. Win tringham ' represent the women of England or that'the women had anything to do with their election? Remember-. ing as we all do the magnificent women who were turned down in Great Britain ai the last election —women who had borne the brunt of the fight for the franchise and may fairly claim that they won the small measure granted— could we-expect any-thinking Englishwoman to rejoice when Lady Astor (who had never been known to utter a word in public in favour of woman's suffrage), was returned for her husband's 6eat? She was elected by his influence and that of his friends, just as if the seat were something that must be kept in the family. Mrs. Wintringham's election was on similar lines. We shall have women in Parliament here some day; let us hope they will b« the right sort. —I am, etc., I E. GIBSON, j