WOMAN ORATORS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 147, 23 June 1928, Page 4 (Supplement)

WOMAN ORATORS.

BRILLIANCE ON PLATFORM.

GIRL SPEAKERS.

Ope need not be very old to recollect the time when a woman speaker on a ; political platform was a phenomenon strange and rare, recordii a writer in a London paper. A phenomenon, too, which male politicians did not at all like. They muttered that "woman's proper place was the home." They were in their hearts jealous, for the women who did venture on to platforms spoke better than most members of Parliament. They were fluent; they did not insert "er— er" between their phrases. They were quite ready to answer questions. Interrupters found them more difficult to disturb than men. Nowadays we have become accustomed to women taking part in public life; their competence as speakers surprises They usually take more trouble than men over their speeches. They begin their platform careers at an earlier age. Wonderful Girl Speakers. How many boys of 18 couid win the commendation of a Prime Minister a*> Miss Vera Farrow did for a speacn, not only full of matter, but excellent in form? She looked like a schoolgirl; she spoke with the assurance of an oia hand. Another speaker on the same occasion was Misg Nancy Stewart Parnell, who, not for the first time, made a hit in advocating the claim of the "under thirties" to vote. She has a compelling look in her dark eyes. Her sentences roil out, well shaped and with the force of sincerity behind them. She comes from Liverpool. Miss Farrow belongs to the Midlands. In politics they mav both go far. There is no more effective speaker on liberal platforms than Lady Violet Bonham-Carter. Her manner is not "electrifying." She appeals to her ' hearers' intelligence. Her phrases re- [ mind one of her father, the late Lord Oxford; they never end up in the air. Her thought is clear and consecutive. Her expression of it, is rounded and pleasing.

"A speaker who makes you feel you're a aleverer chap than you thought you were," was a description once given 01 her. Lady Violet never plays down to an audience. She pays her hearers the compliment of assuming that they can follow an argument. They do follow those which come 'from her orderly brain

"Miss Megan," another Prime Minister's daughter, has inherited Mr. Lioyu George's pleasant voice, his attractive platform manner—and a little of his refreshing audacity as well. When she began to speak she relied a good dea upon notes. But she soon perceived that this was "cramping her style." She determined to do without them, if possible; at any rate, to reduce them to a minimum, half a sheet of note pa per, or the back of an envelope. Now she makes her points with ease and vigour. Audiences enjoy her speeches because she enjoys them herself. The Labour party has more women speakers in its ranks than any other. Very few have so genuine a gift ol oratory as Miss Minnie Pallister. She speaks movingly because she is deeply moved herself. She does not try to make as effect upon her audience. She seems to be talking to them because shemust tell to somebody what is in her mind. Her speeches are largely pictorial She makes those who listen to her see what she sees. They go away with pictures on their hearts. Miss Ellen Wilkinson, M.P., has a fiery outpouring of speech which can hardly be called eloquence, yet which has great influence, especially in the open air. Miss Bondfield, M.P., makes a gracious .impression by her calm, incisive manner. It is her personality rather than her ntterance which exercises so potent a charm. The Finest Gift. In time Mias Ishbel Mac Donald will be as effective on platforms as her father, though in quite a different way. She is quite unemotional. Since she began to speak, some four years ago, she has made very striking progress. She commands respect because she is so clearly master of' her subject, whatever it is. Of;all women speakers, however, the one who, in my opinion, has the finest gift is one who is not a politician—l mean Miss Maude Hoyden. The first time I heard her I said, "That Is the jmost beautiful performance on the platform I have ever heard." Familiarity has little dimmed that impression. The beauty of her vo'ice, her appearance, her phrasing, still leave me of the same mind.