A VEXED QUESTION

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2213, 28 July 1914, Page 2

A VEXED QUESTION

Dear "Imogen,"—Can the Now Zealander, man or woman, ever forget to pat himself upon the back and say, "Oh, what a good boy. am I?" In a paragraph that appeared-in the woman's page this morning we find-these words (presumably about New Zealand women): . . \ "That women can take- an earnest part in public movements without descending to tho level of tho Suffragette was shown at tho deputation," etc., otc... That is. tlicp.it in good earnest,, whother it is dono by you or by somo correspondent who was present at tho deputation, and: Apparently .'it is typical of the whole attitudo of those who. are lighting for the Bible in schools, tliat of wanton attack upon.,utterly uncalledfor subjects and -persons. What necessity was there to throw stones at the Enfilish Suffragette's-? a body of wo'mon who, whethor they are- mistaken or no in their methods " of' fighting for tho franchise for .womon, arc, at. least, entitled t<) a suspension of judgment oil the part-of., others till all the odds against which they; are fighting, and the objects for which' they are fighting, are known. If the women of Now Zealand could show halFthe altruism, half the self-sacrifice, half the courage that theso women are showing, instead" of being steeped in indolence, in utter disregard of the welfare of others , around them, one could feel proud of them. When, however, they are leading comfortale, prosperous, happy lives, with merely politics to play, at, instead of interesting themselves in half a dozen questions affecting women, in this country that they might well inqiiiro into, : and when they cannot possibly realise, -through a'lack'of imagination ar/d a deplorable lack of knowledge,-tho conditions that women are fighting against in Great Britain, both for themselves and for the children, the least they can do is to say. nothing in condemnation of them. . .' ■ . I have- seen women \so destitute of breeding and decency that at tho last election they behaved like harridans of the French Revolution over the defeat or triumph of members of their party. If they can forgot themselves in a mere matter of trumpery local politics, then they might pauso to. consider how women must feel over the things that (ire vitally affecting their liberties, and the welfare of all that they hold dear in this world.—l am,,etc., Suffragette. July 27, 1914. . . ■ [Our correspondent apparently resents attention being drawn to tho contrast between the 'methods of tho militant Suffragettes—tho senseless destruction of property, mutilation of priceless art treasures, tho organising of disturbances! in places of Worship, and all the rest of it—and the sane and reasonable, but infinitely more effective methods practised by tho women of Now Zealand. Only a "Suffragctto" or a person very, ignorant, of the facts, would bd so foolish as to seek to cast so unwarrantablo a reflection upon the women of New Zealand as that attempted by bur correspondent.]