FRANCHISE REFORM.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1488, 10 July 1912, Page 5

FRANCHISE REFORM.

BILL IN THE COMMONS. WOMAN SUFFRAGE QUESTION i RAISED. UNIONIST AMENDMENT. By Teleeraph—Press Association— Copyright (Rec. July 9, 11.25 p.m.) London, July !). In moving tho second reading of tho Franchise Bill in tho House of Commons, Mr. Lewis Harcourt, Secretary of State for the Colonies, said ho considered that one vote one value was a necessary corollary of olio man one vote. The Government intended to pass both, together with a Redistribution Bill, beforo the nest election. Ho did not think t.ho House was prepared at the present moment to add 10j million women to t'lto electorate. ' ' Mr. E. G. Pretyman (Unionist) moved an Opposition amendment declining to proceed with a measure on tho most important aspect of which, namely, female suffrage, the Government were admittedly not agreed; which leaves tho most glaring electoral inequalities unremedied, and which is framed solely in the interests of one party. Mr. Pretyman said clauses ought to be inserted enacting that the Bill shall be inoperative until redistribution was passed. Other Unionists described the Bill os tricky, incomplete, unworkable, and mere jerrymandering. Sir Arthur Markham (Liberal) said he desired the abolition of plural voting, but he was also a supporter of woman suffrage. The Bill was a positive insult to educated women, whom it excluded, while admitting three million men who never ought to vote. Mr. J. A. Pease, President of the Board of Education, warmly resented Sir Robert Mnlny's argument regarding University representation—that the Government wa; influenced by mean and petty motives. The debate was adjourned.