Nelson Evening Mail. Monday, march 11, 1912. WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE. THE PARTY DIVIDED.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVII, Issue XLVII, 11 March 1912, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail. Monday, march 11, 1912. WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE. THE PARTY DIVIDED.

THE recent suffragette outrages will have had the effect of creating further complications in regard to the question as a whole. As has been indicated by information from London, one of the most unfortunate aspects is that the members of the British Cabinet are hopelessly divided on the question. Recently the public saw the Chancellor of the Exchequer addressing an Albert Hall meeting as a whole-souled advocate of the principle of giving the vote to women. Then a little later the cables showed that the First Lord of the Admiralty, speaking at Dundee, advised the women that he would vote against the second reading of the Conciliation Bill, the object of which is to make Parliamentary electors of the million and a-quarter women occupiers of the country, and that he is likewise opposed to the proposal to give all the women of the three Kingdoms a vote. Next, the Chief Secretary for Ireland steers a middle course at Bristol, when he urges -a deputation of ivomen to stick to the Conciliation Bill, which, bv the way, was a private measure, and would imperil the prospects of the whole suffragette movement by seeking to secure at the present time a complete application of the (Women's franchise 1 principle. As is well known, Sir Edward Grey is/a supporter of the suffrage. So are several other Ministers, though the tactics of the militant suffragettes have damped their enthusiasm. Tlie Prime Minister, however, is a strong disbeliever in the wisdom of cov>ferring the vote upon women at all, but, as Mr Llo3 r d George pointed out. the Government has consented to shape its final policy on the decision of the House of Commons, which will only have to carry an amendment in favour of women's suffrage in the Franchise Reform Bill to cause the Government to take up the principle as part. of its .programme. This open-mindedness consults the state of feeling in Parliament as well as that in the Cabinet. The Liberal rank and file hold personal views with regard to women's franchise as irreconcilable as those of the Ministers who have been referred to, and they are not more divided on the subject than arc the Unionists. Mr Balfour approves of women's suffrage ; Mr Austen Chamberlain doesn't. So it is right through the House. And thus the question, being of too burning a character to allow of its being shelved, the Ministry has undoubtedly done the proper thing in referring its differences to the whole House, and agreeing to abide the result, whatever it may be.