BRITISH PARLIAMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 31 March 1928, Page 3

BRITISH PARLIAMENT

Australian .Press Association & SunJ

BILL PASSES SECOND READING. LONDON, -March 29. In the House of Commons the Equal Franchise Bill was read the second time by 887 votes to 19. Tho result of the voting was loudly cheered lroni all quarters of the House. The Bill was then committed to a Committee ol the whole House.

Those who voted against the Bill wore all Conservatives, namely, lit. lion. C harles Craig (Ulster), Mr G. M. Kindersley (Kinchin), Sir IV. Bull (Hammersmith). Mr Geo. Balfour, .Major Sir A. Boyd-Carpenter (Coventry). Hon. E. Harmsworth (Kent). Sir Frederick Hall (Camlierwell), Mr S. Samuel (Putney), Colonel Nall (Manchester), and Sir Charles Oman (Carnarvon). The tellers were General Coekerill and Colonel Applin. LONDON. March 29.

In the House of Commons. Colonel Applin (Conservative. Middlesex), speaking on the Equal I'ranchise Bill, said lent it ought to he left to a free vote of the House, or be postponed for a mandate from the country.

Lady Iveagh appealed to the House to pass the Bill ungrudgingly.

lion. Esmond Harmsworth, in opposing the Bill, described it as " a pose for the Socialists, a conundrum for the Liberals, and a snare for the Conservatives, which would weaken the prestige of Parliament and lower the Government’s authority.” Sir 11. V. Lucas Tooth, Hart. (Conservative, Isle ol Ely) said that as the youngest member ol the House of Commons, he controverted the suggestion that young women were incompetent to vote.

Sir Charles Oman, in opposing the Bill, said that it had done more to break up the Conservative Party than anything since the war. It seemed to suggest that the Cabinet included, not only hot heads but cold feet.

Captain R. A. Eden (Conservative. Warwick) said that as a constituent of Sir C. Oman’s, he regretted the latter’s speech, hut added: “Oxford University has been always the home of lost causes.”

Lady Astor congratulated Mr Baldwin on not heeding the shrickings of the wild press. She said the amendment was the “Dichards” swan song. They might he singing like swans, hut they were thinking like geese. Mr Baldwin, in summing up the debate, said that tho Government, in this Bill, was asking Parliament to fall into line with Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. Two or three generations ago the I ranohise was a privilege. To-day it was a right. In view of the part that women had played in the war, it was ridiculous to refuse tfie claim to equal citizenship. He thought it a complete fallacy that women would vote by class or by sc-x. They would he divided exactly as the men. lie remarked: “We men have not always taken a rational view ol women. We are apt to put her on a pedestal, or plunge her into a pit. Onec this Bill became law tho last traction of the truth of inequality will be gone for ever. ! used to vote against women’s suffrage, but the war has taught me many things. 1 learned, I hope, to. see such things as wealth, prosperity, and worldly success in their proper proportion, and to realise that to build up a broken world halt the human race was not enough. Me must have the men and women together.”