NEW DEMOCRACY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 120, 23 May 1928, Page 7

NEW DEMOCRACY.

UNDER FLAPPER BILL

House Of Lords And Votes For Women. SOME OPPOSITION. (Australian Press Assn.—United Service.) LONDON, May 22. The Lord Chancellor, Lord Hailsham, formerly Sir Douglas Hogg, yesterday moved the second reading in the House of Lords of the Equal Franchise Bill, to give the vote to women at the age of 21, as in the case of men. He said he looked forward to the time when men and women, equally sharing the burden of Empire, would slowly build up a democracy to which they were now setting the coping-stone. LoTd Haldane said he believed the decisive majority for the bill in the House of Commons was endorsed by the great mass of public opinion. Lord Banbury of Southam moved the rejection of the measure. He claimed that no mandate had been given for it at the last general election. Previous extensions of the franchise had not resulted in increasing public interest in politics. Parliament was proposing to give 26,000,000 out of 44,000,000 people power to decide the fate of the Empire. Earl Beauchamp said all the opponents of the bill were Conservatives. The absentees in the House of Commons when the division on the bill was taken included three members of the Cabinet and 12 junior Ministers. He objected to increased plural voting because it made it more expensive to enter Parliament.

The Duke of Northumberland said the bill represented a breach of the pledge to call a party conference on the subject, when it would have been accompanied by redistribution and the reform of the House of Lords. The Act of 191S had lowered the standard of political morality and led to the creation by the Government of the day of enormous funds for propaganda in the electorate by means of the sale of honours.

Lord Newton opposed the bill. He said he regretted that Viscount Rothermere, in spite of what he had written against the bill, had not taken the trouble to record his vote against it, possibly because he thought the seat of government was not at Westminster but &t Carmelite House.

Lords Sumner, Joicey and Ampthill spoke against the bilL The debate was then adjourned. THE SLIPPERY PATH. BIRKENHEAD'S SOLACE. (Australian Press Assn.—United Service.) (Received 1 p.m.) LONDON, May 22. In the debate in the House of Lords on the Franchise Bill, Lord Midleton, opposing the measure,, urged that reform of the Lords was infinitely more pressing than the extension of the franchise. He hoped the Government would reconsider the age at which women would receive the vote. Lord Balfour of Burleigh said that if the Lords accepted "the ancient Britons' extremely bad advice and rejected the bill .they would find that the feeling in the country was far from apathetic. There would be such a storm that the Lords would not be reformed and strengthened but abolished.

Lord Lytton said the ♦'old guard" was still manfully supporting a lost cause. The selection of a representative for Parliament was not a greater responsibility than the choice of a life partner, yet opponents of the bill wanted to makL> the vote the only duty not performable by citizens of the age* of 21.

Lord Clifford of Chudleigh opposed the bill and hoped the . Lords would reject it because the Conservative partyhad been bounced.

The Earl of Iveagh said he had fought nine elections and his wife had fought one and elections were not more difficult owing to the larger electorates. Women did not vote separately from men and gave as good a reflection of public opinion.

Lord Birkenhead said he was against the extension of the franchise to women and was so still, but there was no inconsistency in recommending this measure. The disaster took place in 1919. "But for the war I believe we should have resisted the enfranchisement of women for an indefinite period," he said, "but everybody went mad in 1919 and gradually but inevitably we descended the slippery path." It was first proposed to give the vote to soldiers, then it was found the vote to munition workers could not i-e resisted and finally women munition workers had to be included. Onlv a negligible minority voted against these proposals. "At the time," he said, "I took the view that having made a frank explanation to the House of Commons of my position it was my duty as Attorney-General to carry out the wishes of the Government. There were timei'y and relevant arguments against the enfranchising of women in 1919, but there were none now. To throw o>it the bill would be to cover the Lords with ridicule. My recommendation io your Lordships is to go to the lobby m favour of the bill, if without enthusiasm yet with spirit, resolute in resignation." °

DEBATE ENDED. SECOND BEADING ADOPTED. (British Official Wireless.) (Received 12 noon.) RUGBY, May 22. The second reading of the bill givina vote to women at the age of 21 cn the same terms as men was" adopted bv the House of Lords by 114 votes to 35.