FEMINIST FORUM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 217, 13 September 1930, Page 4 (Supplement)

FEMINIST FORUM.

WOMEN BLACKBALLED IN] '

THE MEANING OF "TRIPE."

(By; A; FEMINIST CORRESPONDENT.)

The House of Lords might have secured some small respect for its de-' bate if." it had thought beforehand of any argument less antique than one which was commonplace in the eighteenth century. We mean, .said my; Lords, to 'reform bur House some day.; In the meantime it would" be a .mistake to think of reforming themselves by bits and pieces. They did not bhtsh to bring, out this, hoary argument or, one ; "that was;incapable of being answered in: their, an unsportsmanlike way of handling the case—when , they, or some of the-Lords, -declared women could bring neither the logic nor . the political'capacity into their House which ! alone would . fit them! for playing tlieir part in the ; proceedings. Help! . .. we. turn to the brainier protagonists of ■ men's'rights ik the-House my Lord Birkenliead ,, naturally transfixes the attention. And his contribution shall '.be faithfully recorded. I'll tell the world wliat the Birkenheadian ukase was yesterday, when he found himself unable, he said, to share the conviction that it had been a great advantage to the State that women, had received the vote. He had read recently, he said, an article by a lady in which she spoke with great contempt of the standard of oratory in the House of Lords. They might speak well or badly, but he parted company with the lady when she said that their standard of speaking would be highly improved if ladies sat on their benches and took part in the debates.

Undignified Language. "I occasionally visit - the House of Commons," Lord Birkenhead continued. "If it be true to say that the presence of ladies and their intervention, in the debates in the House of Commons improve the quality of those debates, 1 would only be permitted to observe thai the debates that I remember there in former days must have been worse than I thought them then, and I had a very low opinion of them. (Laughter). I remember hearing somebody ejaculate "Tripe." To start with I do not know that we should have appreciated its relevance to any topic on which we were enagaged unless it had anything to do with the entrails of certain animals. Yet in the last three or four months this somewhat offensive, certainly not helpful, term has been ejaculated with an, air of triumph which to the ordinary spectator has been a little surprising." '• Lord Birkenhead as a journalist ought to know that the obnoxious word has had long currency in Fleet Street as a term for .describing effusions of little value. It was rash of him to mention the word. i Lord Astor was the leader of the feminist claim to admission to membership of the House of Lords and he made a decided hit by his remark that in previous debates the noble lords had treated the House, as if it were a club debating whether or no certain people should be blackballed. He stressed the. great advantages the country had gained by having queens as hereditary monarchs on the throne at critical times in hi story and testified to the valuable services of women on county councils and increasingly in the House of Commons.. •.- ..,..'-■■ .' '/' ; Woman's Point of View. ■ point of view is different from, that of th© man,,he declared, and I think it .is neces'sary to; have here someone /nullified to' give expression to that pointwf view. Too often our debates lack reality because opinion is overwhelmingly "on one side. He asked the, House to bring itself into line with modern development and . modern tjhought. .Lord Buckmaster begged his fellow peers .not to get rattled—that is in effect; what he meant when he asked their Lordships not to reject the motion merely because its. wording might offend their, artistic sense. It simply meant that ■ the : disqualification should be removed ! fro'm the twenty, pee'resses in their own "right' who? were - unable. to sit in the,ifouse. by reason .of i tie' , ': fact that they were women. ",-,' ,'_ I '. . ':

'■ Women to-day were free to. try to do whatever men were able to do. He did not say they would succeed, but they could try. "I do not see why," Lord Buckmaster said, "they should be prevented from coming here when we are discussing matters in which we need woman's point of view."

Viscount Cecil was the feminist rampant when he firmly declared that everything from queen to crossing-sweeper, was open to women to-day except membership of their Lordships' House. If it was possible to say that the opinion of the country had been declared on any subject it had surely been declared in favour of equality between men and women in the holding of* public positions. He had heard no valid argument advanced in that debate against Lord Astor's motion.

Lord Parmoor on behalf of the Government said that at the present moment they could not expect any general measure of reform dealing with the whole constitution and status of their Lordships' House. He wished it were possible. As regarded the motion; objections had been answered and the claim had been sustained. Why should that House, of all bodies in the world, deny what was on clear grounds the just claim of women to eit there on the same basis as men? The disqualifications ought' to be removed and equality of sex in this matter ought to he established. And on that last word the noble Lords in their wisdom declared by fifty-three votes to forty-nine that women are not fit persons to sit in their House! _ Wonderful to relate, no one mentioned theVname of Miss Amy Johnson.