"DUMPED GLOVES"

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 7, 8 July 1922, Page 16

"DUMPED GLOVES"

M.P.'S AND "ELASTIC? FASHIONS

A SKITTISH HOUSE.

(moM our. own cojir.spondihi.)

LONDON, 12th May.

In the Commons a few days ago Mr. S. Baldwin (President of the Board of Trade) was bombarded with questions on ■the operation of the Safeguarding.of Industries Act, and Mrs. Wintringham. was a prominent interrogator.

In the first place she w__-ted to know what were the reasons for appointing a committee to investigate the dumping of cotton gloves into Great' Britain as a result of depreciated currency, seeing that the imports of cotton gloves in 1913 was 2-£ million dozen pairs at an average value of 6s 8d per dozen pairs, whilst in 1921 the number of imparts was only 570,000 dozen, and the average value 20s per dozen pairs. Mr. Baldwin assured her that the board satisfied themselves before referring the matter to a committee that a prima facie case had been established under the Act. Figures showed that the quantity of cotton gloves imported in 1913 was 2,531,798 dozen pairs, and the declared value £728,050, while, in 1921 the quantity was 719,923 and the'declared valfe.9 £650,635. Before 1920 the heading "cotton gloves" included all kinds of gloves manufactured wholly or mainly of cotton. The particulars for 1921 were compiled on a somewhat different basis, and unavoidably included a quantity of fabric ■gloves woven from textile materials other than cotton or silk. The quality so included is believed to. be relatively small. HOOKS AND EYES. Next the lady M,P. wanted to know if, before appointing a committee to consider the imposing- of a duty of .3^ per cent, under, the Safeguarding- of Industries Act on safety pins and hooks, the President of the Board bf Trade was aware that, owing to a recent change in fashion, elastic had superseded the use of these articles; if he was not so aware, would ■be say why representative women's organisations were not consulted. Mr. Baldwin said that safety pins were not included in the reference to tho committee which covered hooks and eyes and snap-fasteners, The possible effect of the. change in the fashion to the tradowas not overlooked, and it was not consideired necessary to consult any outside organisation on the subject. Ma-. Jack Jones: "What about hatpins?" Colonel Archer Shee: "Will, he consider the appointment of a committee to go into the question of elastic, more especially in view of the fact that all the prettiest girls still used safety hooka and eyes?" (Laughter.) No answer was given. Mr! Baldwin also informed- Mrs. •tringham that the Board of Trade had received an application for the imposing of a duty, under the Safeguarding of Industries Act, on imported French silks. A prima facie case, for reference to a committee was now made out by the applicant, who had since famished further information, which was being' considered. 1700 WOMEN DOCTORS. Dr. Mary Sturge is president of the Medical Women's Federation, which has lately concluded its fifth annual general meeting. ' Medical women want to stem tlie exaggeration about disease all over the country, and she says that in the view of many thoughtful people, medical women have their part to play in helping the State to make wise decisions concerning such matters as infant welfare, venereal disease, child education, child culture, birth control, and so on. This can only be done by conf earing together, clarifying ideas and- then acting. Tlie Federation possesses power to influence iaiid harp public opinion by its collective pronouncements. "We are, of course, anxious to supjport women doctors in _lf questions of salaries. We stand firmly by the principle of equal pay (says Dr. Sturge) for equal work. But women doctore are not out for personal gain. They do feel their responsibility. We rejoice that the Government and various societies come to us now to recommend a member to sit on their special committees and represent tho views of medical women. The League of Nations has asked us to send a representative to Paris for a meeting to consider certain medical problems of international importance. The Americans are trying to establish an international medical association, and we want women as well as men doctors represented on • that body. Birth control is another of the grave problems we are investigating. The question is one on which the opinion of medical women is so often asked that we referred it to our local associations. A number of .resolutions have been received, the general trend of which was disapproval of the public propaganda being- carried on and the desire for further careful investigation." At the annual meeting- it was announced that seventy-six new members had joined the Federation during 1921, making a total of 663. There are 1700 women doctors in Great Britain, and the federation are preparing to attract more of them. The Standing Committee on Venereal Disease reported that it had refused to sanation publication of the report of a- conference with three members of the Society for the Prevention of Venereal Disease held at the request of the latter. The report was considered by the medical women to be too one-sided. THE FIRST WOMAN BARRISTER. " Call Night" at the Inner Temple was this week doubly interesting because Dr. Ivy Williams was. the first woman to be admitted to the English Bar, and she was the senior of the twenty-three students called, taking precedence by reason of her brilliance in the qualifying examination. Lecturer in law at Oxford University, and the daughter of Mr. G. St. S. Williams (an Oxford solicitor), she was admitted by Mr. H. F. Dickeiis, K.C. (Common Serjeant and son of the great novelist), this year's Treasurer at the Inner Temple. Inner Temple gives its call in privacy, and Mr. Dickens expressed to me his personal regret that New Zealand could thus not be represented. To the Parliament Room, when the benchers have retired there after dinner, the newly-fledged barristers are summoned, and the Benchers, and these alone, know what takes place. Wigs are not worn. Regulation decreed that Miss. Williams should appear attired in tho simplicity of woman's evening dress, and she was little distinguished . from other women students. , Beneath hor black gown and "bands" she wore a black dress. As senior' student it became Miss Williams's privilege, not only to head the body, but to express, in her first speech as a barrister, their acknowledgments' for the Treasurer's address. What she said is also not on record, so strict is the privacy that the Inns maintain. But experience that already she has gained as a lecturer on law at Oxford, no doubt, enabled her to surmount what might have proved a nervous obstacle to many. One who was there tells that the students, having taken their places behind the Benchers' seats, Mr. Dickens rose, and in a brief speech beginning, "You have now been called to the Bar," referred to the progress of woman since she was in law a chattel. 'It was true that the law still supposed that wives were coerced by their husbands. He expressed no opinion on the point, but quoted his father's " Bumble," who said .. .*__, law ~"w_s 3, ass mid «, idttiA." imd

made reference to the fact that it was by useful work in war and not by " militant " methods that women had obtained such honours. Addressing the students generally, Mr. Dickens reminded them that years of arduous work lay before them. The great 'thing was that they should be thorough in all their work. That was the wise advice his father, Charles Dickens, gave him when he went up to Cambridge. He concluded by proposing the health of the newly-called barristers. Miss Williams, at the Treasurer's right, stepped forward and thanked the Benchers for the honour they had bestowed. She spoke slowly and very clearly, and created a good impression by her quiet manner. It had been the dream of her life and her father's dream for her, she said, that she should become a barrister. " To-night I have realised the dream of my life," she said, speaking with almost painful deliberation in her effort to control her emotion. "The realisation seems to have left me dumbfounded. lam keenly sensible of the great honour done me to-night, and I only wish it had come earlier in my life." Intimating that she did not intend to practise, she spoke of tlie women who would follow and practise at the Bar, and she asked that every help and encouragement should be given them in the difficulties they would have to face. It was noticed that when she "toasted" the Benchers she took water and not wins. For the first time in memory a student, Major L. C, Benns, took his "call" in the Inner Temple with the rest in a wheel-chair, in which he dined. He served throughout the war and incurred a disability which resulted in the total loss of his legs. WOMAN'S OPPORTUNITY. Commenting on the first woman's " call " as a " memorable event," The Times—long an advocate of the legal profession being eventually for women, because it held that the days had arrived when both sexes should have the equal rights and equal obligations of full citizenship—observes: "The attitude of the Inns of Court towards women is a logical, if tardy, consequence of a democratic progress. On the whole, members of the Bar have welcomed the step which was taken by the Benchers _in providing women with the opportunities of competing for a practice in the Courts. It is for these enterprising women now to show their capabilities in a profession which requires for real success not only the eloquence of the advocate, but the power of assimilating and reasoning upon the principles of English law."