WOMEN ARE "PERSONS."

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 275, 21 November 1929, Page 26

WOMEN ARE "PERSONS."

a — • fcraVY COUNCIL DECISION. jl I I 1 ;<j4wadian appeal case. II * ' '■'■ So ' ■o * K APPOINTMENTS TO SENATE. . U I ___ : n j! % KFrom Our Own Correspondent.) U I VANCOUVER, October 25. (■Canadian ■women, having gained a victhe decision of the Privy Council vfliiqji holds them eligible for the Canadian? Senate, are already choosing favoured ones for the red chamber at qtjt£§va. jjAjjpong those mentioned as probable Sfjia-tors are Mrs. Mary Ellen Smith, of Mftneouver: Hon. Tvene ParJby, of EdEionlon; and Mrs. Edith Rogers, of Winnipeg. Mrs. Smith has long been prominent? in the. British Columbia Legislating and as the first woman in the British Empire to hold a Cabinet portfolio! Mrs, Parlby has been a member of ttie Alberta Government. Mrs. Rogers hiis Jjbeen a member of the Manitoba Legislature for seven years. ".There are five vacancies in the Senate. I?he«Prime Minister, Mr. Mackenzie King, lifts Intimated that he will make appointrjijeirts of women. Had the decision been otherwise, he said, he had planned to introduce an amendment to the British JjTjDrjli America Act, making women aanfissible to the Senate. ',)The Privy Council ruling was on an appeal of five Alberta women from the cJpciSion of the Supreme Court of Canada. TjhaJ decision had held that "persons," £Js jjscd in the phrasing of the B.N. A. Act,* did not .include women, and the ipdges cited Roman law in their judgjfierft. The Privy Council set aside the WicHng, and ruled that women, in the Hiodern interpretation of the. Act. were (jjitftled to be considered "persons." , I Leading Canadian women in greeting thejvictory have emphasised that it is a recognition of status rather than the fuctiial right to sit in the Canadian Senate. The decision, they declare, |;cnjpves sex from Canadian politics and a. great forward move in DominJonKhistory. This view is echoed in Great 3pri|ain, where a widespread campaign j;a.<£ been given new impetus to British w-oflien's fight for reform of the House of ;Lords. !■_ Appointments to the Senate are for lifdS