NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 189, 8 May 1931, Page 8

NOTES OF THE DAY

An interesting sidelight on the municipal elections in Wellington is that, whereas none of the women candidates was elected to the City Council, no fewer than four succeeded in gaining seats on the Hospital Board. In the case of the Council, the most favoured woman candidate was 28th on a list of 35 while for the Board women occupied seventh, ninth, eleventh and thirteenth positions. Can it be concluded from this that the electors, of whom roughly half are women, consider that there is no sphere of usefulness for women on the Council but that they have a real vocation for service on the Hospital Board? Possibly most electors did not analyse their preferences at-all, but the explanation offered above seems a reasonable one. At any rate, although the female franchise has for long obtained in New Zealand, electors have sparingly admitted women to public office except where, as in hospital administration, their service clearly has a special value. Most women probably conclude, as they are justified in doing, that they have an effective voice in the course of public affairs by their influence on' mankind from the cradle to the grave.

Commenting on the disappearance from the British Navy of the Third Battle Squadron in accordance with the terms of the London Treaty, Mr. Hector Bywater makes two points of serious significance. The first is that within a period of twelve years the British Fleet has been reduced in size of armament by “exactly two-thirds”; the second, that there has been no such proportionate reduction in any other navy in the same period. It is clear that unless an adequate response in armament reduction is forthcoming in the very near future, the British Government, or failing that, British public opinion, will insist upon the application of what is known as the “escalator” clause of the Treaty. This clause leaves it open for a signatory Power to abandon its programme of reduction on giving due notice to the others and to build up to the mark of security deemed necessary by the activities of any other Power or Powers. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the MacDonald Government has taken the disposition of certain other Powers, notably France and Italy, to disarm pro rata too much for granted. The present situation gives cause for uneasiness in the overseas Dominions, whose sense of security is becoming disturbed by a progressive weakening of the Empire’s naval strength, thus leaving that of others comparatively stronger than before.