IN THEIR OWN RIGHT

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 54, 1 September 1926, Page 16

IN THEIR OWN RIGHT

PEERESSES & THE HOUSE OF LORDS

BILL REJECTED

XOBD BIRKENHEAD'S OUTSPOK-

EN ATTACK.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

LONDON, 30th June.

tFncomplimontary statements were made in the House oi' Lords regarding tho Peeresses in their own right when the Peeresses Bill was being discussed. The Bill to enable them to sit as members of the Upper Chamber was rejected by a majority of 45—125 votes to 80. Last year tho Lords rejected the Bill by a majority of two votes only, and the supporters of the measure were counting on a reversal of that decision. Peeresses invaded the House as far 'as their present rights allow. Thsy sal, that is to say, in twin galleries which run on opposite sides over tho head 3of the stern legislators who have refused 'to allow them to descend. They took the liveliest interest in the dramatic position which allowed them to hear a debate concerning themselves. They laugher at pleas that the serenity of the Houso of Lords would surely place no undue strain on their strength. They gazed severely through lorgnettes at Lord Birkenhead. A REAL SENSE OF FAIRNESS. Viscount Astor, in moving the second reading of the Bill, said that a year ago noble lords who opposed the Bill liad agreed that when the House of Lords was reformed it was inconceivable that -women should not form part of that House. The real points at issue, then, wero vrhether women should be admitted before the reform of tho ■House took place, and whether there ,was any other scheme which would better carry out the principle of the Bill. The Bill would ontitle 22 ladies to take their seats in that House. Lord Merrivale had said it would add 22 legislators without a shadow of inquiry into their qualifications and expose the hereditary principle to contempt. If ;they had been men instead of women there would have been no inquiry into their qualifications. Aa a matter of fact, one of these ladies had recently been called to the Bar, and another was a director of big financial interests. time was ripe for the removal of sex disqualification. He was entirely in favour of the reform of the House of Lords, but he saw no indication of any Bill for that purpose being able to pass both Houses. Tho passage of the Bill would do nothing to hamper reform. He appealed to the House to rise above prejudice. There was a false dignity which propped up shams, and there was a real dignity which was associated with a high sense of justice and a real sense of fairness.

WHERE MEN CAN LIVE IN PEACE. Lord Banbury moved the rejection of the Bill. These ladies had the opportunity, if they so desired to seek election to the House of Commons. Why should they deprive themselves of that privilege and the privilege of voting for members of Parliament? A short ■time ago, at a meeting of 'delegates of women's associations, Miss Wilkinson, M.P., remarked regarding the subject of the Bill now before them: 'For Heaven's sake let the men have one place in the country where they can live in peace!' (Laughter.) Miss Wilkinson also told them how the House of Commons had changed since women had been elected to it. 'Now,' she sai3, 'men in the House of Commons are 33 rude to women as they are to men.' (Laughter.) They wero all agreed that any reform of the House of Lords must necessitate a reduction in their numbers; yet at this moment.this Bill was going to add to those numbers 22 people whose patent did not entitle them to be there, and who, if tney were desirous of entering that House, should wait until the reform of the Housi had taken place.

LORD BIRKENHEAD'S SPEECH. "Not a single new argument has "been advanced," declared Lord Birkcnhead, "to deflect the House from the judgment it previously pronounced.'' The Cabinet Committee, after many months of inquiry, had presented a report to the Cabinet, and on that report, "within reasonable time, a decision must bo reached. Had it occurred to anyone that in anticipating that report they would not merely register an abstract resolution that women should be entitled to sit in that House, but that they would say that those .25 women should at once and in that brief interim period bo allowed to take their seats there? Without disparagement of any of those ladies, none of them would be nominated by any competent tribunal to sit on that or any other legislative assembly. If it was desired to reinforce the debates of their lordships by the presence of ladies, it conld be done in a perfectly regular fa&lrion—not in this irregular, piecemeal way.

He assumed that any intelligent reform of that House would greatly enlarge the area of selection. He had always been a pessimist in relation to schemes of reform of that House, bocause his experience there had fortified him in the conclusion he formed long ago that that House was very well content with itself as at present constituted. But supposing he was wrong, and that their lordships were prepared, for a far reaching scheme of reform which .would even admit the other sex to their councils, upon what basis ought that selection to bo made? The matter appeared to him to be too clear for argument. The constituency from which they "must select the women representatives must be tho whole constituency of this country. It must not bo limited to 25 ladies who, by the accident of an accident, held peerages.

CREATING A CASTE. "These Ladies were peeresses in their own right," said Lord Birkenhead, "for a reason which from ono anglo is creditable to their sex, and from another is an immense recognition of the superiority of the other sex. The one and only reason was that there was no prospect of. an heir male unless they were made peeresses in their own right. In other words, the hope was founded on physical fecundity. That was their channel to their position as {peeresses iv their own right. The only reason was that, being women, there was the obscure and not certain hope that they might bring males into the world. Many of them, I am bound to say, have disappointed that reasonable expectation." lie was prepared to meet the claims of women for admission into a reformed House of Lords. If and when it came in a general scheme of reform ha would no longer contest it. That was a different thing from creating a caste of 25 individual ladies. Tho House of Lords might be reformed early or later,' but ,tliat could not,t>o done without its consent. It was possible there might be a proposal that some portion of their lordships' Houso might bo recruited as the result of election. That was where the ladies had their real chance. If and when that House was reformed let these ladies go to the constituencies and establish on a domestic basis their light to sit in. the House of Lords. Before

a reform of tlio House of Lords was recommended by tie Government which would afford women a place in the House he would never agree to the admission of a small and illogically constituted class.

INDIGNANT PEERESSES. Peeresses take strong objection to the debate in tho Lords. "A disgrace to the House of Lords," is what Lady Newborough thinks of at least one ot" the speeches. "What America and other countries "will say when they read it I do not like to think," she said iv an interview. "As I sat among tho other women listening to it, I wns thankful that I was not a. peeress in my own right, hearing such shocking things as Lord Birkenhead said, and I was not surprised, after one particularly revolting remark of his, to hear one peeress say to another, 'I've never been so insulted in my life.' I should imagine one would have to search a very long way back in Parliamentary records to find a speech so disgusting as Lord Birkenhead's. It was not even convincing. It was beside the point and illogical, and I do not see that it could carry conviction to anybody. His taunt about the peeresses holding their titles by 'accident' is absurd. • If the peeresses' titles are 'accidents' so are tho peers.' Then he said that no competent tribunal would elect some of them to this or any other elective assembly, which I think was a very illadvised statement. Many of the peeresses are very clever women who have done a lot of political work. Lady Rhondda is famous as a brilliantly clever woman, and Lady Clifton is a barrister."

Lady Furnivall, one of tho peeresses in her own right, also expressed her opinion. "Peers sit in the Houso of Lords," she said, "by right and not by election. Therefore, peeresses in their own right should be able to do the same, as they are equal to peers. As women sit in the House of Commons, peeresses should have the same chance as peers—being on an equal footing with them—of expressing thoir views for the good of the country. Some of them would probably do this with more energy and conviction than some of the present peers. I agree with Lord Buckmaster in his condemnation of the personal element introduced in the debate by Lord Birkenhead." 85, Fleet street.