WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 53, 27 February 1912, Page 2

WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE.

ALBERT HALL SPEECH BY MR. LLOYD-GEORGE. NUMEROUS INTERRUPTIONS. London, February 24. Mr Lloyd-Oeorgo, speaking at the suffrage meeting at Albert Hall, sa'id that the Government would carry the Reform Bill this year. He was prepared to accept the responsibility ’of the Women’s Suffrage Amendment Bill if it was incorporated therein. Ho objected to the referendum as being too costly and likely to undermihe Parliament’s authority and frustrate justice. I At the suffragette meeting in the Albert Hall there were many interruptions on all sides. Mr Lloyd-Gcorge at first treated interjections lightly, but later replied with sharp retorts, the speech sometimes resembling a dialogue. He said the reason the Government had not incorporated women’s suffrage in the Reform Bill was ' because neither of tlie two great parties w r cre united on the subject. Throe-fourths of the Liberals, including two-thirds of the Cabinet, supported women’s suffrage, whereas three-fourths of the Conservatives were opposed to it. “There never was a time,” he continued, “when the nation stood • more in need of the special experience and sympathy of ivomanhood iir Government affairs, on such pressing questions as housing, dearer food, education, intemperance.” The franchise must be based on broad and democratic lines, similar to those of the self-governing colonies.