Uproar at Labour Women’s Conference

Wanganui Chronicle, 4 October 1947, Page 5

Uproar at Labour Women’s Conference

London, Oct. 1. Uproar at the national conference of Labour women at Southport interrupted a speech by Mr. Shinwell, Minister of Fuel and Power, for five minutes. Eight hundred Socialist women sang “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” when Mr. Shinwell rose. Soon after he began speaking, seven women, including members of Southport’s 1 Young Conservatives and of the Housewives’ League, who had obtained tickets to the conference, began heckling. Socialist women delegates booed the hecklers, who later left the hall and paraded outside with placards. The audience at the conference listened fot five minutes to a speaker discussing national maternity services before they discovered that she was not a member of the Labour Party, was not invited to speak, and was not even invited to their meeting. She was Mrs Mary Soden, who “gave the show away” when she claimed during her speech that she was a staunch member of the Housewives’ League, which Labour members have condemned as an ally of the Conservatives; Members booed and shouted protests.