WOMEN'S FRANCHISE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3052, 13 April 1917, Page 3

WOMEN'S FRANCHISE

RECEPTION OF NEW PROPOSALS.

A. majority of the Conference on | Electoral Reform, presided over by the Speaker, favours some measure of woman suffrage, and should Parliament accept the principle suggested, any woman on the Local Government register who has • attained a specified age (30 and 35 receiving the most favour) and the wife of any man on the same register of the age, should be entitled to a Parliamentary vote, states the London correspondent of the. Christchurcli "Press," writing on February 13. Tho proposal has been coldly received by the various suffrage societies, ' and the attitude of the leading members may be briefly summarised: — Mrs. Despard: "Too absurd. The limitations suggosted will receive little support in Parliament." Mrs. Corner (Women's Freedom League): "Nothing moro ridiculous to women has ever been suggested." Miss Jetley (N.TJ.W.S.S.): "The age limit suggested is absurd, and we shall certainly go for a fcwrer figure. .Even if 30 were the age decided upon, some of the women best qualified to vote would be excluded. But, of course, wo are thankful for this small mercy." Miss Underwood (Women's Freedom League):' "Was the Speaker's conference trying to cover the whole' subject with ridicule? Why, some of the finest war work has been done by women botween twenty and thirty years of agel Mrs. Pankhurst (W.S.P.U.): "Tho position of the W.S.P.U. has always been: 'Votes for women on the same terms as for'men.' This and this only will fully satisfy woman's claim to the franchise."

Miss Evelyn Sharp (United Suffragists) : "Our society demands votes for all men and all women, so naturally we are not satisfied by this now proposal. It is significant that the men's local government franchise under the proposed scheme appears to have been speoially limited in order that women's Parliamentary franchise may also bo limited. They want to spoil the men's vote under one head in order to spoil the women's under another." Miss Jean Lambie (Suffragettes of the W.S.P.U.): -"We still look to the Government to bring forward some definite and practical proposal which shall preclude the possibility of the renewal of hostilities." Mrs. Petherick Lawrence: "By what

grotesque working of tlio political mind has the conclusion been reached that tlio welfare of the community can only ho safeguarded by tho exclusion of women from the human commonwealth until they have attained the age of 30 or 35 years? What a significant demonstration it is of tlio extraordinary pranks that an obsession will play with the logical faculties of tho most levelheaded of men, especially tho obsession of fear." ' Mrs. Strachey (Parliamentary Secretary of tlio National Union): "Wo are very disappointed that the conference did not recommend woman suffrago unanimously. Still, it is better than nothing. They seem very frightened of : women, aud their proposals are very timid ones."-