The Belgian Socialists.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 23, 5 June 1902, Page 18

The Belgian Socialists.

The recent elections in Belgium have resulted in the gain of two seats by the Clerical party, and this throws a little light on the frame of political see-saw now going on in that country. The Socialistic outbreaks there have led Borne people to imagine that there is urgent need for a reform of the suffrage in that country. All Belgians who are twenty-five years of age have at least one vote, and tax-payers and married men, as well as those possessed of certain educational qualifications, are entitled to oast additional votes. The Socialists have during a considerable period been clamoring for universal suffrage, because they believe that the one-man one-vote system would give them a majority and place power in their bands. When the Clerical party declared that they were not unwilling to grant universal suffrage if children and youths under twenty-one were debarred from voting and if women were granted a right to vote as well as men, the Socialists objected on the ground that as the Belgian women are true to tht Church this change would only itrengthen the hold of the Clericals over the country.