AMUSING DEBATE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13811, 23 January 1909, Page 2

AMUSING DEBATE.

DEFENDING WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE

There is no precedent for a woman being asked to speak in a debate at the Oxford Union, the training school of orators and statesmen. On November 20th the appearance of Mrs Millicent Garrett Fawcett among the undergraduates of : Oxford was interesting for another reason. She had been asked to defend the cause of woman's 'sutV rage as one of" the leaders of that movement. That invitation needed some courage to accept. When a crowd of undergrads did a cheerful "scrum" into the hall, it seemed that Mrs Fawcett would appear like a lady. Daniel in a den of youthful and rampagious lions. There had been expressions of annoyance on the part of some members of the Union, who objected to any woman asking the floor of the house, and still more' perhaps to the gallery being filled with lady visitors, who crowded out those who claimed a right to it. In anticipation of trouble a number of policemen had been brought up, and stood in ambush in the Union gardens. . Fortunately there was no need of them. When the president of the Union arrived with Mrs Fawcett, the undergrads gave that little lady a recusing ovation. The question for the debate was:—

."That in the opinion of this House,, the time was como when the Government should be urged to remove the electoral disabilities of women."

This problem, serious as it is to the nation's well-being, was not reached without difficulty, a great number of questions, some put in the form of poetry, being hurled at the (Mr M. H. Richmond), who answered them sternly, decisively and wittily. Mr R. A. Knox, of Balliol, who moved the question, began by admitting that Adam's fifth rib had long been a bone of contention in the world, and then, with a generosity that was delightful to his audience, who applauded every epigram, he condemned his own sex for its long and brutal : tyranny over womenkind. "Is it right," iie said, "for physical force to be the one claim to 'political and social schmidt should have greater political power than Mr Lloyd George. "Who is better .qualified* to consider the Licensing Bill «r education —the men who get drunk in a public-house or the women they go home. to. assault?" With as much sincerity as he was capable of, he stood waiting for the laugh that followed. Mr E. P. Swaim, "of St. John's, strenuously onnosed the question put before the Union. If women had the vote they would want to enter Parliament. That was obviously ridiculous. If it came about they would read in the papers that the President of the Board of Trade had been seen in Rotten Row wheeling a perambulator, would read that the Secretary for AVar had gone north to take part in a sewing party, and that the First Lord of tlie Admiralty was arranging a bazaar on behalf of a new battleship. Could such things be tolerated by a proud nation r

Other members of the Union discussed the question of women's suffrage with a, light hearted gaiety on one siue or the other, and the thousand under-

graduates in the hall greeted each pun, each carefully-prepared epigram, each solemnly uttered absurdity with shouts of laughter. Mrs Fawcett sat listenins; to all tnat youthful levity with a smiling face, and then, rising and facing that great assembly of young men, who cheered

her with loud and prolonged enthusiasm, she put before them very simply, very quietly, the reasons upon wm :li she bases her conviction that women have a right to the vote. She obtained a roar of applause at once by annihilating the argument of one or the sneakers who had pointed to the policeman at the door to illustrate Ins argument of physical force. It showed that man does not live by bread alone, she said., but chiefly on catchwords. The noliceiuan was tne servant of tno municipality of Oxford; which consisted partly of women and was partly elected by women - The policeman at the door was, therefore, a complete refutation of the argument of physical force being controlled by men in the. citv of Oxforu. Putting aside all questions about the militant suffragists, wan whom she is not associated, Airs rawcett gave an historical retrospect of women's advancing liberties m education, science, art and social and public lac. .—• showed how in every branch of intellectual and civic life women have done splendid work. .She concluded that it was onlv one small stage further along the line of logic to admit women on the same 1 terms as men to the ballot-box. _