The Daily News. MONDAY, JULY 29, 1912. BRITAIN'S CRIMINAL SUFFRAGETTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 60, 29 July 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, JULY 29, 1912. BRITAIN'S CRIMINAL SUFFRAGETTES.

A while since, New Zealand received a cable message stating that a band of assassins had left some unpronounceable place en route .for Pekin in> order to assassinate the new Ministry. Every good Britisher naturally felt that th» Chinaman was a detestable person capable of any outrage. Lately New Zealand has received a'cable message to the effect that feniafe assassins in the guiso. of "suffragettes" have tried to burn a ifieatre full of people, that one of 'thorn attempted to murder the British Prime Minister with a hatchet, and in other ways- to prove what very fit and proper persons they arc to exercise the vote. Britain jis unquestionably the best disciplined country in the world. The lovo of the people for. law and order ~i» proverbial, and the-'"gentleness" of the "upper classes" a national belief. In order to obtain the very doubtful privilege of "votes for women," "gentlewomen" are descending to methods that would shame the hired assassins mentioned in that cablegram from' Pekin . The natural chivalry of men prevents the authorities from really coping with the criminal suf-. fragette, and 'the fact that her "belongings" ar£ usually people of the wealthy and controlling classes ig a handicap to her sufficient punishment. It will probably in time be regarded aa the duty of the State to suppress the criminal suffragette in- exactly the same way as the burglar, the garotter and the forger is suppressed. As an example to her humbier sisters the woman who throws bricks through the windows of a tradesman who has nothing whatever to d» with her grievance is awful. The fashion in many quarters of regarding thes* criminal lunatics as noble women with "cause" spurs them to new feats of crime. The unlwlanced person of either sex who gains notoriety for "badness" becomes; a much greater menace tin longer he or she is uncaptured. As n psychologic.il study, the criminal suffragette is quite as interesting as the Paris "apache." .Tust as the apache is the product 'of the civilisation that breeds outcasts to war against society because it casts them out, so docs it produce the other extreme, the clever, overfed, over-petted woman who bursts with evil (>nei;_n- to <] o soinHhinrj with her useless life. Th» averi-p sin:- \vom;;n who h;\< ,i;!(!ir:il i:Hrp.<>.. ~„,! ~ ri ,., Bnn .

able ;i;)ii>i!:i; of normal work ]ip,s no place in licr brain for thoughts of murdered premiers and burnt theatres. There is no suffragette who lias boon ptnll.y of attacks on persons or the wilful destruction of property who should not, be either in ait asylum for. the insane or in gaol. Every State will in process of time take wider responsibilities in dealing with abnormalities. And when the day comes many "great" »uf-

fragettcs and Labor leaders will be carefully relegated to their propee place under adequate physical and medical control. The apathy of the general normal public) to the menace of the wan* . dering madwoman is probably the reason | why she remains at large long enough to get to work with her gunpowder and her I hatchet. These gentle assassins would j be extremely annoyed if they were class- ' ed with the haggard, long-haired anarchists whom Britain is so inhospitable to jat present. The suggestion of a British politician that the relatives of suffragettes should be made responsible for their good behaviour is excellent. Undoubtedly, if the State lunatic asylums were all filled, private detention could be arranged by relatives who had female apaches in the family.