FEMINIST FORUM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 21, 25 January 1930, Page 4 (Supplement)

FEMINIST FORUM.

IN MEMORY OF A GREAT WOMAN. DAME MILLICENT FAWCETT* (By A Feminist Correspondent.); The service of November 19 in Westminster Abbey was unique. Outside of royalty, no woman has ever been so honoured as to have a memorial service in what is the great national shrine, at which were present personalities of every rank and grade, from all kinds .of national industry as assembled Within the grand walls, which are so redolent of our whole history. Naturally, in view of the mission to which the whole of her life had been devoted—the cause of women's enfranchisement—there were present the women M.P.'s and representatives of all the societies which had fought for it. Miss Margaret Bondfield, M.P., Minister of Labour, whose, accession to office had crowned the lifelong struggle in which Dame Millicent had played so great a part, her colleagues, Dr. Marion Phillips, Dr. Ethel Bentham, Miss Wilkinson and Miss Jenny Lee; of the other parties, Lady Astor, the Duchess of Atholl, Miss Megan Lloyd George, Miss Pictdn Turberville and Miss Rathbone. But in the eyes of the world at large the greatest tribute paid to Dame Millicent's memory was the presence of so. many men in leading walks of life. The Prime Minister wished to be present,' but was obliged to send a deputy, but both Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Lloyd George attended. One can but single out other personalities, such as Lord Cecil, Lord Parmoor, Lord Astor, Sir Herbert and Lady Samuel, Sir John and Lady Simon. The Hon. Pembe* Reeves attended as a member of the first Government in any Dominion to give the women the vote, and with him was Mrs. Reeves, who did much work for the feminist cause as. a leader among Fabian women. It was an indication that Dame Millicent Fawcett was a member of a family whose avenues to a wider sphere for women were made through the breaking down of the barriers into the medical profession that there were present, members of her own family, Dr. Louisa Garrett Anderson, and a great number of leading medical women. Lady Barrett, Dean of the Royal Free Hospital for Women; Lady Plender, representing the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital; Lady Berry, Dr. Jane Walker, and a large number of women doctors. Dame Millicent's services to edujcation were attested by the presence of Dr. Scott Lidgett (University of London), Miss Haldane (University of St. Andrews), Miss Louisa Mac Donald, formerly principal of the Women's College, Sydney (N.S.W.) University, and many leading educationists. The.part she took in the entry of womne into municipal politics was shown by the attendance of the Lord Mayor of. London and of a number of Mayors of metropolitan boroughs, by that of the Mayor of Aldeburgh, her, native town. Of women's societies there were the Open Door represented by Mrs. Elizabeth Abbott, the Open Door International by Dr. Chrystal MacMillan, the Women's Freedom League by Dr. Knight, and a host of other leaders in the cause, Lady Frances Balfour, chief among them, Mrs. Corbett Ashby, president of the National Union .of Equal Citizenship, the Edinburgh branch of which also sent a representative. '. International Sympathies. But Dame Millicent's sympathies were catholic in their range. She was one of the most regular attendants of the meetings of the Institute of International Affairs. From those far-off days when she was the wife of a Minister, the blind Postmaster-General, dates her long association with the Union of Postal Workers, and all sorts of societies of all political colours testified to their pride in a woman whose work they-regarded with admiration. .* ,''•-'- ' * .... 1 There were present, in,short, every leader in the feminist cause, the "names of which form an epitome of the movement from Miss Maud Royden, who has dared to push open the door of the Church to all the humbler workers in the feminist cause. " / ' -\ ' The congregation, then, was a notable one, and it had much colour owing to the academic dress worn by all men and women who were there to show'that the educational world wished to pay;it* tribute to.the great feminist leader. The service,-a stately one.to which the rich robes of the, dean arid clergy, lent further colour, had an ; individual character given to it by the-hymps chosen. "The King of Love-my Shepherd Is" was sung first, and it was followed'by the passage from Ecclesiastes:, '*L'et us .now praise famous men. . .-';.'; Their glory shalihot be blotted out. Their bodies are\ buried, in peace, but-their name liveth for evermore. The people will tell of their wisdom." Never before had this lesson been read in the historic Abbey in praise of a woman. Women's Freedom. The, long struggle for women's freedom to which Dame Millicent Fawcett had. devoted herself made the choice of the last hymn inevitable: Blake's "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the Coming of the Lord." The final stanzas were sung by the congregation as well as the choir. This simple yet fine service to the memory of Dame Millicent Fawcett set in the Abbey was a deservedly national tribute to the 1 memory of a great feminist. " The Hon. W. Pember Reeves and Mrs. Reeves were among those who attended the Dame Millicent Fawcett . memorial service at Westminster Abbey. Mr. Reeves fittingly represented the first in any Dominion to give women the vote. Mrs. Reeves, who lives in Surrey, very seldom comes to town, but she came specially to pay this tribute to a great feminist.