THE RIGHT TO STARVE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 29, 4 February 1913, Page 11

THE RIGHT TO STARVE

iWtßi*, tibtiott. Bir,""When. ignorance is blUs)' 'tie folly to be wise, ' can scarcely be applied to the •writer of the article oirthe above mbjeefc. as he is eyidently.not happy or Ije wdultl not e^ve way to such a Wildly hysterical tirade against women of whom he knows nothing. A few words of explanation W&y calm hie mind. ." Mrt. D6«pftrd(ei*ter of General French), to whom he applies the title of "chief desperado," is kaowa among the poor and degraded M the. East End of London as a. saint, who ha« given up a luxurious ,hdme to hve in a room in the slUtas, where *he spends her all in money s time, and loviug aifitefly help for those Who have tiotlung. Her Well-known and adored figure, dreesed in the plainest clothes, With a. mantilla in place of a Hat, and no ffloves, or furs, or ornament excepting httr ' dUfffftge badge, is met with respect everywhere from palace to the lowest Blum dwelling, Over 70 years of age, she is president of the freedom League, a non-militanfc society. Her . exclamation of "shame !" referred ' to the treatment ds criminal* of political offenders, and lier "crime" wag denouncing the feoanda-toug perfidy ef the AedWth Government at Trafalgar Square. Her fine .was paid by the Government, which dare not keep such a woman, in prison. She is the friend of the .Labour Patty, and § practical Socially, who ha« given all, not taken all, as Mr. Lloyd-George has done. Mrs. Di;ummon.d'-"£c'neral Drummond" *r w^?t $&*$ fl 8 u , fene n horseback leads the W.S.P.U- brttwh of tlie women's proceSßidiig, is- a working- woman.. She is not connected Wlfch Mhu De«p&rd'e ' society. 8h& Is head ci the IthtGfc-htindred working women who hay& ffivoa theii* liv«» to the cause, and represent 600,000 ora-anised \vorkert. Hor circular— which I have ju»t f«ceiVftd' : M;all« upon, working women to join- in one great stand for pdlitie&l ifitfhM aad,the.redrd«B of three questions, Which are;— 1. Tha awetthig of women worker*. 2 The white nla.ve traffic. (The new Bill gives a man teo punishment for trapping an innocent girl than for stealing a loaf of bread. Such it the- justice of England* law to women). 3. The outrages committed upon little girl»--«(>nie <of thorn only babies— for which a 'few weeka is considered ample punishment, in Britain. ' T\\o demand of tlio united suffrage eodjetics, nuitabering thirty-fivo distinct societies, with quite a thousand branches, is for tho '"vote as it is or may be granted to men." - The militants' demand has always been for equal suffrage and a vote for every woman. Property and iiiflueneo count* fo* . nothing in the demand, and Bines the proposal to enfranchise till men, the Conservative Unionist suffragest women have withdrawn their opposition to adult nuffrage. The "hunger strike,*' which, from yottf Article, oud would think was an outrage on Mr. AsqUith, is a protest which self* respecting women must make against tho Iniquity of the treatment to which political offenders!, when they are women, arc iHibjeofced by tho Liberal Government. Homo Rulers dn<l tUiU-Hdtna Rttlei'e, wh6 have political rfower, smashed inoro window* in ono hour in Belftwt than the suffragettes, v,-ho have ho citizenship, have smashed in ithrep years; but no one was arrested, much less .«üb]ected to impriatinment. The Irishmen tucd fifoHrms, anrl actually fii'dd shots in the crowd, but" were 'fiot arrested. Tho Bulgarians, who are killing, ravishing, ttnd laving w&gte ruthlessly for- the cause- of freedom, have every I encouragement, audiod *i'o 'applauded by I (he mo rid. The Cornell, whose oaune ts

that of the emancipation of the larger portion .of tho humah raco .from woi'bo than Turkish rule, are, by "you ' and others who misunderstand their policy and misinterpret tho aims— which even tho most rabid anti-suffragist in Britain cannot ignore — are labollcai'tsriminals and subjected to abuse, which one 'Would not think any decent tnan would venture to apply to tho lbwest and most degraded members of * his own sex. 'Evidently there aro men in NeW Zealand who have been " whipped " in competition with women, and whose enmity makes them forget that they owe their existence to the de.«pised sex. Mr. Lewis Harcoitrt, who virulently opposes the suffrage, owes his election to the efforts of his wife, whom, he has no coiimpuriotion in sending into the slums or on to tho platform to further his Candidature, though he would deny her tho vote. We. Asquith sends his young daughter to address meetings i or men on Home Rule, Welsh Disestablish* j ment, and the Insurance Act, but dc« clares that women's votes would endanger the Empire. Mr. Asquith declares ho , will never stand for a constituency which includes women voters, but he calls upon the Liberal women to work for him at elections, and do. all the intellectual Work of orgahieing and addressing meetings, while he spends his time hiding from women whose shoes he is 1 not nt to brtwh. - Wo who Jtnow Mr. Asquith's methods, anticipated the Speaker's ruling" months ago, and Mr. Asquith, by surrounding the House of Commons with 2000 Qolice, als6 anticipated the indignation that his treachery would arouse. The. White Slave Traffic Bill, which had been thrown out one hundred times without discussion, was only a sop to Liberal women who had become festive under repeated insults. We all that the < Bill is inoperative without women's votes, and that tho, House of Commons would never have allowed the Bill to pass unless the members had known that it would be a dead . letter. The spirit whioh animates the women of England cannot be quenched by any torture. , Self-sacrifice and self-devotion to the cause *of helpless children and sweated women workers is the watoh* word of the crusade. . Neither men nor women ih Now Zealand *re able to un* doratand the need for militancy, • but it is evident to all who have seen the working tot the. political machine m England. Any policy or any methods which you may suggest to overcome the' barrier which is ..raised- against the vote by the traffickers in innocent ffirls by. the .capitalists who flourish at the expense of their women employees, will be welcomed, ,but tthtil these evils aro overcome tho "women who are in the. fight, and wlio ciro nothing for any party or party politician, dare not ' rest fromtheir struggles for justice and protec-tie-h for women, who arc unable to fight fdf themselves. It is >a holy war, to which life even is givtrn, ftttd^ w supported not by 30,000 sißftaturos, but by the life-blood and indomitable devo-' tiou of women such as Mrs.' Despard. Petitions including half a. million signature's have repeatedly s been submitted to Parliament' for the suffrage, women who have been brought up in the lap of luxury 1 such as we in this 1 Country had never enjdyed are giving Up money, tune, health, ahd every measure of ease and comfort which is theirs by birth and culture, to stan^l beside the downtrodden and oppressed." Women such as these are 'abused, slandered, and treated with contempt by those only who are incapable of understanding' tho higher ideals " which have been the means from timo immemorial ■ oft breaking the fetters of the oppressed, 1 have glvpn instances of the operations of the white slave traffip to some New Zoa--land women, who, with me, are surprised at the moderation shown by those who aro battjhif? agaihsfc these iniquities. The church in England, though knowing what has been going On, has nev&r, until aroused by th& Suffragists, taken any notice of wrongs ahd .crimes \Vhicfr Ai'& undermining the morals and the hesAth--both physically ahd meiitally-^tof tho .race. The church is how helping in the oauso which i,t ha 1 * ab.d Would always have ikftor-' ed foi' the sake «f the" filthy' luere'lrbm the. proceeds of the econoinio and moral, slavery of women. ' '■ - ..Trlfsting'-y on will,. give this «xplanationl diio "prominence for the" 'sake' of my treasured belief in tho justice of the New Zoa-! land presis.-"*I am,, etc., ANNA P. STOUT. - Wellington, 3rd February. ■ The following extract from the report of the House of .Commons (December 9th) .may be of interest to thpse who think the pillar-box- crusade is wrong and useless: — "Mr. Herbert Samuel, Postmaster -Gendril : Some 5000 letters vhave been damaged by injurious Or inftemtnablo 1 substances, but not a single letter is known to have been destroyed. With respect to all but thirteen letters and i seven . post-cards, the senderp's address on which was rendered illegible, my officers haye < succeeded in .eenaing them to their destination, or returning them, etc. x & small numbor re* m*Jn awaiting enquiry." . . . The re* cipients of the letters all have votes for women, and the grievances of Women brought before their eyes by the smudges of coloured water, which is the extent of the damage done. Soir.e of the reports sent by cable have be fen highly coloured for the sake of sensation, but no one has been hurt, a and no article his eVer been damaged by the militants, There has never been one penny" worth of damage to goods in shop^s, Which is in glaring contrast to the looting and wholesale damago of chops - 'and cattle-maiming'- which his characterised. the Agitation for and against Hqme .Rule. The . Words of the Lord Bishop of Lincoln, the President of the English Church League fot Women's Sutfrkge, seem the point of ( vlew of all Leagues — "It is because Parliament needs just that 'stimulus of moral enthusiasm, that recognition of human claims, that woman's influence best can supply, that we desire to see our women armed with the vote."— A.S, - ->