THE FRANCHISE BILL

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8341, 30 January 1913, Page 7

THE FRANCHISE BILL

MR LLOYD GEORGE'S PROMISE

SUFFRAGETTES WAIT FOR HIM IN TILE HOUSE.

By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright LONDON, January 28.

Mr Lloyd George lias written regretting that ho will bo unable to receive a deputation of suffragettes, who have replied recalling tho Chancellor of tho Exchequer's promise to receive a deputation when the fate of tho Bill had been decided, and stating that they will wait for him in tho House of Commons to-night.

MRS DESPARD SENTENCED,

LONDON, January 28.

Mrs Despard, president of the Wo* men’s Freedom League, has been sentenced to a fortnight’s imprisonment.

RESCUED FROM CROYVD

TWENTY-TWO MILITANT SUFFRAGETTES ARRESTED.

LONDON, January 28.

The suffragettes smashed a numbel of windows in the Treasury offices and also in shipping companies’ offices in Oockspur street. The police rescued several militant suffragettes from » menacing crowd at Whitehall. Altogether, twenty-two suffragettes have been arrested, chiefly for resisting the police. A deputation visited tho House of Commons and demanded to eee Mr Lloyd George. The latter refused, but said he was prepared to receive a deputation to-morrow. Mrs Drummond said this answer was unsatisfactory, and tho deputation attempted to enter St. Stephen’s Hall. A scrimmage ensued, and several suffragettes, including Mrs Drummond, were arrested,

IMPRISONMENT BEFORE FINE.

WHOLESALE WINDOW-SMASHING

IN LONDON,

“WHOLE PLOT DECIDED LONG AGO,” SAYS MRS PANKHURST.

(Received January 29, 9.45 p.m.) LONDON, January 29.

Mrs Dospavd has accepted imprisonment in preference to a fine of 40s. The Home Office, Treasury, Admiralty, and Local Government Board windows were broken. Then the wreckers destroyed tho huge pi ate-glass windows in the Ham-burg-America Shipping office. Mrs Pankhurst, addressing a suffragette meeting, declared that tho whole plot, even to tho Speaker's ruling, had been decided on long ago. Mr Lloyd George’s refusal to receive a deputation confirmed the belief that ho was associated with his colleagues in a crime towards women. The whole business was a trick, and the Cabinet were all anti-suffragists at heart.

Addressing a deputation on November 7th, 1911, Mr Asquith said he had long been of opinion that there was only one way in which tho question of electoral reform could bo settled upon a sure, rational, and lasting foundation, and that was by abolishing once and for all the technical distinctions which at present existed in the different categories of qualification—lodger, property owner, occupier, rated resident, householder, and tho like. The thing must bo placed on tho only rational foundation —that a man who had satisfied tho conditions ho had laid down, and was a bona fide resident or inhabitant in the neighbourhood when he claimed a vote, should bo automatically, without any effort of his own, and by the machinery of a public officer and at tho public expense, invested with tho full power of tho franchise. As far as ho could forecast the probable course of legislation, that would bo tho principle upon which legislation would proceed. He went on to say that ho hoped the Government would introduce proposal# to this end in tho next (session of Parliament, and that although, speaking for himself, ho did not hold that the term “man" must include “woman," yet any Bill introduced would bo in suo a form that it would bo open to tho House of Commons, if it pleasod, to make that extension to it. Questioned on tho subject in tho House of Commons, Mr Asquith said that, in his opinion, any largo reconstruction of tho franchise law must bo followed, as a logical corollary, by an equitable redistribution of representatives. Ho declined to say whether tho proposals would include tho principle of proportional representation. It seems likely, says Hazoll’s Annual, from Mr Asquith’s statement, that the promised Bill will bo a short ono, dealing with tho franchise only. A private Bill introduced early in 1911 by Mr Crawshay Williams, on behalf of tho People's Suffrage Federation, proposed to give tho franchise at 31 years of age, with a three months’ residential qualification, to abolish plural voting and university representation, to provide registration at the cost of the State, the register to be published at least four times a year, and to come into force a month after publication.