WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 79, 30 March 1912, Page 5

WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE.

——•* j .. .CONCILIATION BILL BY A NARROW MARGIN- ; • 1 ■ a!n excited house. 1 ; - j/ i ; . i ' ;'■*'/ “ (By Electric Telegrapn.—Copyright.) (United Press Association.) London, Maroh 29. The Conciliation Bill was rejected by 222 to 203. Forty-one members of the Nationalist Party opposed it in order to save the Government a week of Parliamentary time for the Labour' Party. Messrs Lloyd George, Burrell, Burns, Runciman, Bonar Haw, Balfour, Lyttelton, Wyndham,' O’Brien and Healy supported the Bill, whilst Messrs Harcourt, Hobhouse, McKenna, Buxton, Churchill, Chamberlain, Smith, Balcarres and • Pease opposed it. Tlic Liberal supporters of the Bill bitterly resent the Nationalists’ action. The opponents of the Bill w" hats and handkerchiefs and shouted, the scene recalling the defeat of a Government. Tho Premier said that the natural distinctions of sex, in which there were different functions for men and women, ought to continue to ■be recognised in the political sphere. There wa.s no evidence that a change was desired. ■ ? Sir E. Grey said that it was unfair to penalise a large majority of the women by withholding the vote owing to the militant outbreaks. Industrial questions.would, he said; absorb more and more of the attention of Parliament, and it was impossible, to , exclude women from exercising an influence on such questions. Many women hold a demonstration outside the Houk; of Commons. There was a great meeting in the Al--1 bort Hall, where Mesdames Pethick and Laurence had a rapturous reception. Ten thousand pounds were col- [ looted, including five sums of £lobo I each.