WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE DEMAND

Evening Star, Issue 19658, 10 September 1927, Page 21

WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE DEMAND

TMEALGAR SQUARE DEMONSTRATION .THE CL9 CAMHESS British women’s organisations during the past four months have been rallying public support in support of the Prime Minister’s promise of a Bill for equal franchise. Women have addressed meetings in Hyde Park and elsewhere; they have carried on systematic lobbying, and have paraded the streets with posters. The climax of their work was reached by a demonstration in Trafalgar square at which forty societies were represented. Two of the oldest campaigners, Mrs Despard, who has just celebrated her eighty-third birthday, and was presented with a bunch of flowers as a tribute . to her wonderful work in ' the cause of women’s suffrage, and Dame Millicont Fawcett, were there, with Viscountess Rhondda,’ Lady Balfour of Burleigh, Mrs Pethick Lawrence, and many other women well known in the Equal Political Rights Campaign. Before the speeches there was a mass poster parade round the square, followed by community singing, the songs including ‘We Want Votes,’ to the tune of ‘ Three Blind Mice,’ and the ‘ Women’s Marseillaise. A PICTURESQUE FIGURE. Lady Rhondda, emphasising the purpose of the meeting, said they were there to show their appreciation of the Prime Minister’s promise that early next session he will introduce into the House of Commons a Bill to give votes to women from twenty-one on the same terms as men, and in time to vote at the next General Election. They wished to show him that they stood behind him in his determination to pnt this measure on the Statute Rook and were ready to strengthen his hands, Mrs Despard, the most picturesque figure on the plinth, pleaded that the young women may have the opportunity they are seeking, and that it may be given them at oncc._ “It is no use waiting,” she said, “till another,election is over. They, must take their place now with those who have gone before them, and have the political education the others have had.” TWENTY YEARS AFTER. A vivid picture of the changed conditions was drawn by Mrs Pethick Lawrence. Recalling a meeting in Trafalgar square twenty years ago, she said there was a huge audience, very different from that they saw that day, drawn to the square by curiosity to hear an idea propounded which seemed at that time to be so strange that it was almost monstrous. Remarks were passed amongst the crowd like this: A man would say: “ Votes for women do they want?” “Yes,” they_ replied. “ I suppose,” he went on, “ it will be votes for cats and dogs next.” Yet in spite of the strangeness of the idea the movement grew and grew until nine years ago they had a very cautious measure for women’s suffrage. “ Now,” she said, “we must sweep away all artificial barriers, and women must be brought into the body politic on the same terms as men.’ , Twenty years ago, she also recalled, there was only one member of Parliament who had the courage to come out and stand by the women’s side on the plinth in Trafalgar square. “ Shall I tell you who that was? ” “Yes,” the audience answered. “It was Keir Hardie,” a name that evoked a round of applause. “ How times have changed,” she said, “it is not now a question of having one member of Parliament to support them, but the Prime Minister himsejf and members of every party in the House are vieing with each other in coming forward to support votes for women.”

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Mr Frank Briant, the one member of Parliament on the platform; pointed out that it present at the very period between twenty-one and thirty, when industrial conditions meant so much to women, they were deprived of any right in respect of voting for members of Parliament. It was argued that in any measure of equality women would exceed men on the voting • lists. “So they will,” he said, “ and so they ought to if there are more women.” Twenty other speeches were made, and at the close resolutions were passed both welcoming the Prime Minister’s pledge, and also demanding for peeresses in their own right a seat, voice, and vote in the House of Lords.