BRITISH POLITICS.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17078, 16 April 1927, Page 7

BRITISH POLITICS.

VOTES FOR WOMEN. GOVERNMENT'S BILL. AN ABSORBING TOPIC. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn.) LONDON, April 24. Votes for women has again become an absorbing topic since Mr Baldwin’s announcement in the House of Commons to the effect that a Bill would he introduced to grant women votes at 21. Strange to say, criticism of the idea of votes for women at the age of 21 comes solely from the members of the Conservative Party and the Conservative press. The Daily Chronicle says both the Opposition parties favour this reform. It is estimated that of about 5,000,000 new women voters under the scheme 5,000,000 would be between 21 and 50 years old and the remaining 2,000,000 women over 50, who are at present disqualified. Apparently there is no difference of opinion as lo the proposal to lower the voting age from 30 to 25. The difference arises as regards women between 21 and 25. The, opponents of this step-are equally prepared to deprive men of those ages of the vote.

H was easy to see how painfully conscious Mr Baldwin was of the lack of approval of his own side of the House when lie made his announcement, says the political correspondent of the Morning Pest. Afterwards in the lobby it was hard to discover more than a handful of Conservatives in favour of the Government’s decision, which beyond doubt has been taken in the face of every expression of party opinion. It is estimated that if the plan is carried out the women voters will outnumber the men in 70 per cent, of the constituencies.

The Daily Telegraph says that when the Bill is tfiscussed an effort will no doubt he made to fix the age of men and women voters alike at 25, but although arguments in favour of this arc many and strong, it is quite a forlorn hope that they will prevail. Twenty-one has been the age of manhood for so long that it is a delusion to suppose it can he altered now, says the writer. If political equality is assumed 21 must also he the age of womanhood. j Conservative members of the House of Commons,’ with one eye on their constituencies, are reluctant to express their views openly. Lady Astor, M.P. for Sutton, Plymouth, says she is not the least frightened of women’s votes. She lias now been in the House for eight years, and has found that since women had the vote moral and social questions . are treated from a different point of view, not as freak legislation.