VOTES FOR WOMEN

Otago Witness, Issue 3292, 18 April 1917, Page 24

VOTES FOR WOMEN

(From. Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, February 13. A majority of the Conference on Electoral Reform, presided over by the Speaker, favours some measure of woman suffrage, and should Parliament accept the principle suggested, any woman on the Local Government register who has attained a specified age (30 and 35 receiving the most favour) and the wife of any man on the same register of the age, should be entitled to a Parliamentary vote, The proposal has been coldly received by * ne various suffrage societies, and the attitude of the leading members may be briefly summarised i— _ Mrs Despard : " Too absurd. The limitations suggested will receive little support in Parliament," . • ' , Mrs Corner (Women's Freedom League) -. "Nothing more ridiculous to women has ever been suggested." „ Miss Jetley (N.U.W.S.S.): "The age limit suggested is absurd, and we shall certainly go for a lower figure. Even if 30 were the age deoidad upon some of the

women best qualified to vote would bo excluded. But, of course, we are thankful even for this small mercy." Miss Underwood (Women's Freedom League): "Was the Speaker's conference trying to cover the whole subject with ridicule ? Why, some of the finest war work has been done by women between 20 and 30 years of ago! Mrs Pankhurst (W.S.P.U.) : "The position of the W.S.P.U. has alwavs been: 'Votes for women on ihe same terms as for men.' This and this only will fully satisfy woman's claim to the franchise." Miss Evelyn Sharp - (United Suffragists): " Our society demands votes for all men and all women, so naturally we i>re not satisfied by this new proposal. It is significant that the men's local government franchise under the proposed scheme appears to have been specially limited in order that the women's parliamentary franchise ir;ay also be limited. Tlioy want to spoil the men's vote under one head in order to spoil the women's tinder another." Miss Jean Lambie (Suffragettes of the W.S.P.U.): "We still look to the Government to bring forward some definite and practical proposal which shall preclude the possibility of the renewal of hostilities." Mrs Pethick Lawrence : "by what grotesque working of the political mind has the conclusion been reached that the welfare of the community can only be safeguarded by the exclusion of women from the human commonwealth until they have attained the ape of 30 or 35 years? What a significant demonstration it Is of the extraordinary pranks that an obsession will play with the logical faculties of the most level-headed of men, especially the obsession of fear." Mrs Strachov (Parliamentary Secretary of the National Union): "We are very disappointed that the conference did not recommend woman suffrage unanimously. Still, it is better than nothing. They seem very frightened of women, and their proposals are verv timid ones."