PEACE AND THE WOMAN VOTER

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 64, 18 December 1946, Page 8 (Supplement)

PEACE AND THE WOMAN VOTER

In very many of the articles and discussions on the ways and means of establishing peace, an appeal is made to women to exert all their influence in this direction. Yet the writers must know that women are almost entirely excluded from the Councils of the Nations where the tremendous questions which may lead to war arc discussed and settled.

However, me might ask ourselves whether there is anything which the ordinary woman can do for peace. This is not as difficult to answer as one might think. First let us try to understand where we went wrong last time. Odette Keun, in her book analysing the European scene, places the responsibility for this war not on the chief actors in the tragic drama, but on the people, and she adds:—

“No democratic peoples can be so betrayed, it shapes its own course and selects its own Governments. A democratic people can be betrayed only by itself.” ,

In the democracies after the last war, with the exception of France, Italy and the Balkan countries, nearly half of the voters were women. Then the truth would seem to be that we voted for the wrong people to represent us in Parliament. Either we were tied to parties, an anachronism in the modern world, or perhaps because our minds were filled with wishful thinking about

al kinds of domestic reforms, very important in themselves, but only against a background of Security from attacks by enemies. So, we sent few or no women to the Councils of the nations, and the men for whom we voted were hoodwinked by the dictators and allowed the peoples they represented to drift into a second World War. This happened in the British Empire, the United States, and France. Prussia alone, ruled by Stalin, saw and prepared for the danger, and the democracies owe a debt of gratitude to the Red Army. This time every woman, before she votes, should make sure her candidate is determined not to throw away a victory purchased at such a terrible price. In the words of Thucydides, every Member, of Parliament must remember that “The price of liberty is the means and the will to fight for it.” Never again must the means be lacking. In every constituency there should be a vigilance club, the members of which would put the welfare of all the peoples of the world as the paramount policy of its government. This is just one suggestion. Many others could be made and usefully discussed.