THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1907. MARIE CORELLI AND THE SUFFRAGETTES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8364, 21 February 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1907. MARIE CORELLI AND THE SUFFRAGETTES.

To those who are acquainted with the works of Marie Corelli, and especithose who admire them, which we do not, the statement that Miss Corelli has not sympathy with the suffragette movemenj; will come as a considerable surprise. "I love my own sex," writes Miss Marie Corelli in the Rapid Review. "Man," writes Miss Corelli, "looks upon the Apple of Life as his property—and if he gives Woman a small bad quarter of it (often made bitter by a bruise or a worm) she is to think herself highly flattered and favoured. He has always been a law unto himself. And he makes laws for her which she has to accept. Whatever she doessave and only the bearing of children —is distinctly wrong." Nevertheless, Miss Corelli is not in favour of the enfranchisement of women. After pointing out that she has a good claim to a vote as aratepaying, taxpaying householder, she continues: "Why, then, do I not insist on this denied 'right'—this political privilege of voting? Why? Because, frankly and honestly, I do not want it. Again, why?--Because, to my mind, the very desire for a vote on the part of woman is an open confession of weakness —a proof that she has lost ground, and is not sure of herself. For if she is real Woman—-

if she has the natural heritage of her sex, which is the mystic .power,tp persuade, enthral, and subjugate man, she has no need to «;>me down from her throne and mingle in any of his political frays, inasmuch as she is already the very head and front of Government. Let those who will laugh at, or sneer down the statement, the fact remains that a man is seldom anything more than a woman's representative." In Miss Corelli's opinion, women suffragists are rapidly destroying the sacredness of womanhood.