WOMEN AND CITIZENSHIP

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 120, 22 May 1916, Page 2

WOMEN AND CITIZENSHIP

MISS ADELA PANKHURST IN AUCKLAND. She -came into the room, as the interviewer rose —a slight, graceful figure, below medium height, simply clad in black velvet, and held out the firm handclasp of friendship. Out of a round girlish face, two eyes of the deepest clearest grey looked forward towards a world as women -hope it yet may be—a world in which they will hold all the rights as well as the privileges of citizens. “What do I think,” said Miss Pankhurst, in answer tc a question, “is the outlook for woman’s franchise in England, after the war? It is such a big guesticn with us. There are no cloar-

:;t issues, as with yen. The proporcn of females before the war was a Allien in excess of the men; after the ;ar it will surely be higher. You now there is not adult suffrage for

men in England, a fact little appreciated in New Zealand, where all vote. This limit falls very heavily upon the single men. who. to obtain a vote have to reside for twelve months in the one place and have a room to themselves tc qualify. Under the housing conditions, where

working men often sleep five in a room, brothers share rooms, and lodgers sleep two in a room, a large number are pressed cut of their citizenship. “After the war I think these men will demand manhood suffrage. If ihat comes. I do not see hew womanhood suffrage can be refused. Still, I am not hopeful; so many other questions will obscure the issue; the war taxation, and the Irish question Icom largo. “If women at the present time were • rrauted the suffrage in England, upon '"he same terms as men, only about ne and a-lieif million women would "-‘C-eivo the right. The conditions are ■ c bod in England that approximatev five million men are excluded from ny partiepiatien in the country’s afi fairs, whiel about seven and a-half million exercise their veto. “For the last thirty years a ma’"■rity in the House of Commons has

been in favour of giving women votes, hut this-- party has always been split again int:< two divisions —one in fa■mir of the complete suffrage, and one for the limited suffrage to those •'vomen who rent or own a house in heir own name. From the year 1532 clown tc the present day, men owning oroperty of a-certain value in any con-

stituency can exercise votes in each place. You see the hold this gives the propertied classes over the control of the country. “'Women suffrage reformers will have to begin anew. I fear, after the war. The conditions will be sc hard after the War —Isivc.h wait debts Co pay; and, with a depleted supply of men, the women question is bound to come again to the fore. The “Daily Mail” has had articles in favour of fiie subject, while before the war it was bitterly against the enfranchisement of women. After the war it may ’-'0 again. There is no reliance tc be placed on the Northclilfe Press. “EV.t what cannot be undone is the experience gained by women in the factories, the workshops, and the field in doing men’s work. They will have : think. The nullcok from that point is must hopeful, women themselves will be in the mass to see the j .mow t. need for the power to protect 'hcmselv-'w cfm'nst further explolta‘im. Women will begin to think -more .ii-flg'rn, it is the great need cf the day.” And v slight little figure, clad in black velvet bel dout the hand of parting friendship as the interviewer thanked her and left the room.