"INTOLERABLE HENPECKING."

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1605, 23 November 1912, Page 11

"INTOLERABLE HENPECKING."

ME. BEENAED SHAW OX WOMEN'S i EIGHTS. Mr. G. B. Shaw was the *chief speaker at a meeting held in Caxton Hall, London, by the • "Women's Tax Resistance League last month, "to protest against the imprisonment of Mr. Mark Wilks for his .inability to pay the taxes on his wife's earned income." Sir John. Cockburn was in the chair.'.Mr. Shaw said that this was the beginning of the revolt,of his own unfortunate sex against the intolerable henpeoking which had been brought upon them by the refusal of the Government to bring about a reform which everybody knew was going to ooine, and the delay of which was a mere piece of senseless stupidity. From the unfortunate Prime Minister downwards no man ivas safe. He knew of cases in his boyhood where women managed to mako home 3 for tneir children and themselves ( and then their husbands sold the furniture, turned the wife and children out, and got drunk. The Married Women's Property Act was then carried,. under which the husband retained the responsibility of tho property nnd the woman had the property to herself. As Mrs. Wilks would not pay the tax on her own income Mr. Wilks went to gaol. "If my wife did that to me," said Sir. Shaw, "the very moment I came out of prison I would get another wife. (Laughter.) It is indefensible." ■ Women, he went on, had got completely beyond the law at the present time. Mrs. Leigh had been let out, but he'presumed that after a brief interval for refreshmeats she would sot fire to another theatre. Ho got his living by the theatre, and very probably when she read the report of that speech sho would set firo to a theatre, where his plays were being performed. . Tho other .day ho. practically challenged the Government to starve Mrs. Leigh, and in the course of the last fortnight he had received the most abusive letters which had ever reached him in his life. The Government should put an end to the difficulty at once by giving women the vote. As he resumed his seat Mr. Shaw said: "I feel glad I have been allowed to say the things 1 I have here tonight without being lynched."- . A resolution protesting against'the imprisonment of Mr. Wilks .was unanimously