BRITISH ELECTORAL REFORM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14926, 26 February 1912, Page 6

BRITISH ELECTORAL REFORM.

According to the cable messages in this morning's Herald, the British Cabinet appears to have arrived at an understanding upon the women's suffrage question, concerning which Ministers have been divided. Mr. Lloyd-George stated at an Albert Hall meeting that although women's suffrage is not incorporated in the Reform Bill now being discussed, the Asquith Government will accept an' amendment having that effect, and will assume responsibility for such amendment. This leaves to the House of Commons a decision which can hardly be made by the leaders of either party, for one of the difficult features of the women's suffrage movement in England is that its champions and its opponents are to be found on both sides of the House. Mr. Lloyd-George claimed that while three-fourths of the Liberal members supported the movement threefourths of the Conservatives were against it, but this classification of sympathies is, of course, tinged by the Chancellor's partisan prejudices. The • Conservative attitude to women's suffrage is naturally affected by the Conservative attitude towards suffrage itself; otherwise, the cleavage on the women's suffrage question is surprisingly indifferent to party affiliations. Sooner or later, women's suffrage in the United Kingdom appears to be inevitable and when instituted will be watched with great interest. In the colonies, there are comparatively few women who live isolated lives; but at Home, owing to the large and increasing preponderance of women in the. population, an immense number of women are quite isolated from normal family influences. In the colonies, the women's vote undoubtedly merges inseparably with the vote of men. Whether it would do so in the United Kingdom remains to be seen.