WOMAN SUFFRAGE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 52, 2 March 1908, Page 7

WOMAN SUFFRAGE.

BILL IN THE HOUSE QF COMMONS.

motst:to diyidep. SECOND READING PASSED. 87 Telegraph.— Preea AsaooUtion.— Copyright; LONDON, 29th February. In the House of Comnions Mr. H. Y. Sangcr's Bill providing for the enfranchisement of women, which is identical with tho Bill introduced by Mr. W. H. Dickinson some time ago, was read * second time by 271 to. 92. The Right "Hon. H. Gladstone, Horns 1 Secretary, said, without committing; {he Government, he personally supported the measure. The majority included Sir E. Grey, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs), thf Right Hon. John, Morley , (Secretary of State for India), the Righ.t Hpn. R, 8,. Haldane (Secretary of State fox War) the Right Hon. John Burns (President of the -Local Government Board), the Righ.t Hon.' D. Lloyd-George (President <\f the 1 Board of Trade), Mr. Gladstone (Horn* (Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs), the Right Hon. John Morley (Secrecy, of Cherry (Attorney-General' for Ireland), and Air. W. Rnncimou (Financial Se'crc* tary to the Treasury). The minority included the R^ht Hon. H. H. Asquith (Chancellor pf the Exchequer), Sir W. S. Robson (AttorneyGeneral), Mr. S. T. E,Vanß (SolicitorGeneral), Mr. Lewis I^arcourt (Firqi Commissioner of Works), and Captain Sinclair (Secretary for Scotland). The Bill was remitted to a committee of the whole House. This is considered equivalent to -shelving it. The suffragists have resolved to coqtinue to agitate, and to urge that a Governmsnt Bill" be brought in to ensure it? passage. Tho Times, commenting on the- Bill, says when the people talk about wo- • men's successful exercise of thp franchise in some Australasian and American States and in Finland, they seem to forget that the problems of Government there approximate fax more to municipal questions than those Britain deals with. The suffragist leaders have not yet demonstrated that any considerable number . of women agree with them. WESTERN AUSTRALIA'S CHANCE. WOMEN INTEND TAKING DP LAND. THERE. (Received March 2, 9.35 a.m.) PERTH, This Day. Mrs. Crawford, a leading EpglisH .suffragette, has arrived as the agent pf eleven other women of means yho intend taking up land in Western Australia. They have been attracted, to .Australia by the fact that women ia by the fact that women in the pqlonj the colony are enfranchised. They also intend establishing a Ban*torium for Ajßglo-Indjangi Miss Ghristabel Pankhurst, organising 1 secretary to the National Women's Social and Political Union, recently wrote as 'follows to an English t>sper :— "The fact that Mr. Haldane 4? v ote4 an entire •speech at Glasgow to the question of ■women's enfranchisement is unquestion- . -ably P. prppf of tjie rapid progress which *he woman pufffag" movement" has made since the adoption oy tbe Women's Social and Political Union of militant and •really political methods of agitation. At ♦the same time, his vague and general remarks to the effect that the timo ia coming when women's right to the franchisp must be recognised will not suffice "to reassure and satisfy those women who •earnestly desire to yote. What we want from Mr. Haldane and other member* of ' the Cabinet is not vague declarations of ' .sympathy, but an explicit statement as Jto when the Parliamentary franchise is' to be extended to women. Mr. Haldane 'asserts that before the franchise can ba ! extended to women the voice of this na- • /tiou must bo heard, and by this he appears to mean that a general election must be fought upon the question. If he takes that view, then we beg to • remind him that at a general election not tho voice of the nation, but the voice of the men electors only, is heard. To expect women to wait for the franchise until men electors have endorsed their claim, is not more reasonable than it would have been to expect men to wait • for the vote until women had given their consent to the enfranchisement, of men. Moreover, Mr. Haldane, when he argues that the Constitutional change demanded by women cannot be made before the ■electors have been consulted/ is guilty *of great inconsistency, because he is pn« of those who recently announced the probability that the Government will introduce a Bill altering the position of the House of Lords, and wjlj, if tfie consent qf tho Peers can be obtained, carry the Bill into law. This is to lie done, in .spite of the fact that tlje House of Lords question was pot befofa too eJptfQrs at the last general election, "Mr. Haldane ig further reported to have uttered the following remarkable words ;:— Women may wage yar: but my advice is, do not do it with bodkuu —you m)l pnly irritate people and provoke then?.' Wooien suflWsts" my reasonably call upon Mr, H*l|ane tp be more explicit, and to indicate clearly the naturd of the methods of attack which he seems to advocate. For want of guidance from Mr. Haldane on this point, jv« .shall continue our militant agitation on the present lines. Mr. Haidape's naive admission that lie does n* like the protests wo make at his meetings, naturally affords us keen satisfaction, for we feel certain that, ju6t as dropping water will wear away a etone, sp our policy of pinpricks (as Mr. Haldane calls ft), steadily and relentlessly pursued, will break down the liberal Government's opposition to our demand that {ho vote shall be granted to women this year,"