| Telephone: Victoria 6188 |
"THE WOMANS LEADER." |
| Telegrams: "Voiceless, London." |
DIRECT SUBSCRIBERS - 1 1/2d. |
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NATIONAL UNION OF SOCIETIES FOR EQUAL CITIZENSHIP.
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| 15, DEAN'S YARD, WESTMINSTER, S.W.1. |
Hon. Treasurer: |
President:
Miss ELEANOR RATHBONE, C.C., J.P.,
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Parliamentary Secretary:
Mrs Hubback.
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| Mrs. SODDY. |
Office Hours |
9.30-5.30
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| Saturdays - |
9.30-12.30 |
| 21st January, 1926. |
| Dear Sir, |
| KING'S SPEECH.
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| 1. Equal Franchise. |
| I am writing on behalf of the National Union of Societies for Equal
Citizenship to express our hope that some reference to the intentions
of the Government with regard to Equal Franshise will be made in the
King's Speech. |
We are anxiously awaiting a statement from the Government as to
the date at which the Members of the Conference, you have promised
to set up, will be appointed.
During the debate on the Representation of the People Bill, on February
20th last year, the Home Secretary indicated that the Conference could
be set up this year, and that legislation based on its Report could
be introduced next year. As you are aware, women's organisations everywhere
attach the greatest importance to the early setting up of this Conference
in order that the legislation may reach the Statute Book as soon as
possible. |
| [handwritten] Daily Mail
/ 3rd Nov. 1927. |
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THE FIRST FRUITS OF FOLLY.
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I am entirely and absolutely opposed to the "flapper"
vote. I was not committed to this at the last general election,
nor were hundreds of other candidates, and I consider the indiscriminate
increase of the franchise, without a shred of responsibility, to
be the most idiotic and ill-considered piece of legislation that
has ever been proposed. - Captain J.W. Reynolds, in a letter
to the Doncaster Conservative Executive, on his resigning his candidature
for the Don Valley Division.
In his letter to the Doncaster Conservative Executive Captain Reynolds
expresses what there is every reason to believe are the real sentiments
of the great majority of Conservative voters. They have never been
asked their opinion on the Government's crazy project of giving
votes to girls of 21; and the more they hear of it the more they
dislike it.
The best judges almost without exception are convinced that "votes
for 'flappers'" means "votes for Socialists," with
deadly results to the Conservative Party. Every one knows that no
pledge to enfranchise "flappers" was given by the Government
at the last general election.
The municipal elections, in which the Socialists have secured huge
gains, mainly at the cost of the Conservatives, supply fresh evidence
that the character of the electorate has not yet recovered from
the last great inflation of 1918. There is clearly an enormous mass
of voters who, no doubt, are well-meaning enough but have not acquired
the sense of responsibility and that political |
instinct without which representative institutions
cannot work. These irresponsible voters sway this way and that and
are always liable to vote for those who will promise them most at
other people's expense.
When such is the electoral situation, to add another 4 1/2 million
votes to the undigested millions already on the register is to complicate
all the problems of government and to play the Socialist game-a procedure
of which certain of the Conservative leaders seem so enamoured that
they have recourse to it at every turn. Yet, as Lord Rothermere has
warned them, "you cannot fight Socialism with Socialism."
If votes are given to "flappers" and if the constituencies
are flooded with new and inexperienced voters, men will be placed
in a minority in two-thirds of the constituencies; and the Socialist
vote will be so largely increased that a Socialist Government will
become inevitable. It is an open secret that Socialists calculate
that at least three-fourths of the new votes will be given to
them, thus enabling them to sweep the country.
The first fruits of the present Conservative policy of trying
to outbid the Socialists with Socialistic measures are now being reaped
by the Conservative Party in the municipal elections. The full harvest
of this policy will come with the next general election of members
for the House of Commons. With the help of the "flappers'"
vote the Socialists believe that the total of Conservatives in the
next Parliament will be reduced to such a small remnant as to paralyse
the Conservative Party and deprive it for an indefinite period of
all effective political influence. |
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