§ Lord ROBERT CECILI beg to move,
That leave be given to introduce a Bill to extend the suffrage to women on the same terms as men.The Bill is extremely short and simple, and its purpose is to extend the franchise to women on the same terms as those on which it is now enjoyed by men. The reasons for the Bill may be stated very briefly. We have had experience of the exercise of the franchise by women in one General Election and in a number of by-elections, and I think everyone admits that it has been entirely successful. We now hear no more of the old objections which used to be so common; of the idea that women would all vote together in one mass against the men; of the conception that granting the suffrage to women would bring about the downfall of the British Empire; nor even of the doctrine that some strange evil would befall women, and that they would be found very reluctant to exercise their vote. On the contrary, they have voted in numbers about equivalent to those of the men, and I do not think there is any ground for believing that they have exercised the franchise on grounds less satisfactory than those on which the male voters acted. As a matter of fact, the old "monstrous regiment of women" doctrine, which used to be not uncommon in this House, has been relegated to those homes of culture and progress, the City of London and the Scottish Universities. At the same time the position, I think, is not altogether a satisfactory one. Though, in my judgment, causes in which women are interested have greatly advanced by the granting of the vote to women, yet I think there are signs that, politically and socially, women are not yet regarded as entirely on equal terms with men.
§ Viscountess ASTORTell that to the electors.
§ Lord R. CECILI do not want to go back to the controversies of last Session, but I must remind the House that certain 1287 incidents in connection with the failure of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill were not, in my judgment, such as would have occurred if that Bill had been mainly of interest to men and not to women, and in other matters the position is still less satisfactory. Last August this House passed, I think unanimously, a Resolution demanding equal treatment —I am putting it roughly—for men and women in the Civil Service. It was an elaborate Resolution, setting out in detail what was required, and it was assented to by the Government. As far as I know, practically nothing has been done in pursuance of that Resolution as yet, though we are told by the Government that the matter is receiving its closest attention. I might mention other matters, like the Trade Boards question, in all of which I think there is still a strong impression that women are not quite entitled to the same treatment as men, and it extends beyond this House. We have seen it in one of our great Universities, and, alas, quite recently in one of our greatest and best known hospitals. I put this Bill before the House very largely because it will sweep away one of the statutory differences between men and women in political matters. There is really no assignable grounds that can be alleged for the maintenance of that difference, and there is no reason whatever for thinking that a woman of 21 is more incapable of exercising the suffrage than a man of 21, and certainly there is no ground for thinking that she compares worse with a woman of 30 than a man of 21 does with a man of 30.
I do not propose to add any arguments in favour of the Bill, and I shall be interested to observe, if there is a Division, what support the opponents of this Measure receive. I have great hopes that the Bill will receive important support even on the Treasury Bench. I very much regret the absence of the Prime Minister, and particularly the cause which keeps him away from our midst. I am not quite sure what he would have done. It is true that in a celebrated letter he said it would be the duty of the Government to remove all existing inequalities of the law as between men and women, but recently he announced that the Government were not prepared to remove this inequality, 1288 and it may be that it is one of those cases which follow the well-known dictum that there may be jam yesterday, and jam to-morrow, but never jam to-day. Then I turn from the Prime Minister to the Leader of the House, and there I have much greater hope. The Leader of the House made a speech to the Primrose League not very long ago, and I was delighted to read the earlier passages of that speech, particularly in view of the attitude which my right hon. Friend used to take up in reference to the question of women. He said:
It is vital to the success of our political institutions and the stability of our social system that women should take their full share in the responsibilities of the franchise.
§ Lord R. CECILI remember my right hon. Friend during the passage of the Bill supporting an Amendment to extend the franchise to women of 21, at that time.
Mr. CHAMBERLAIN-Then my Noble Friend and the supporters of the extension assured us that we need have no fear that such would be the result.
§ Lord R. CECILI am sure I never said anything of the kind. I remember that I opposed the Amendment, because I regarded it, as, indeed, it was, as a wrecking Amendment, but my right hon. Friend did, in fact, support it and supported it for very good reasons— very much the reasons that I have given to the House this afternoon. Therefore, I have great hopes of him, and his recent statements to the Primrose League show the great enthusiasm of a late convert to the women's cause. Now, who will oppose? [An HON. MEMBER: "Banbury!"] I have ventured to take advantage of the procedure of the House and to introduce the Bill under what is called the Ten Minutes Rule in order to give the House an opportunity of expressing in the Division Lobby who are for and who are against this proposal, and I have done so for this reason, that the Government has expressed great reluctance to put forward this reform. If the Bill was so fortunate as to be given a Second Reading by a large 1289 majority, I think that reluctance might become less. After all, they have got to consider the time of the House, and if they found there was a very strong feeling in favour of this Bill, then I hope we should have a stronger ground for pressing its further passage upon the Government. In any case, there is the opportunity for hon. Members to vote against this Bill if they so desire. If they vote against it and defeat it, that is the end of it. If they vote against it and it is carried, then I hope that at last a measure of justice and expediency will become law—expediency, because these anomalies in the franchise have no advantage and are far better removed so as to have the simplest franchise law that we can; and justice, because there is no ground whatever for saying that the class it is proposed to enfranchise are less capable of exercising the franchise than those who have already got it.
§ Lieut.-Colonel ARCHER-SHEEI am surprised at the Noble Lord introducing this Bill in this manner under the Ten Minutes Rule. Surely a matter which affects the enfranchisement of something like 5,000,000 electors is a matter that ought not to be brought in by a Bill under that Rule. It is an abuse of Parliamentary privilege, and I should have thought that ho, with his ancestral traditions, ought to know that the enfranchisement of large numbers of the people like that is a matter which can only be brought in by the Government and before a General Election, so as to receive the approval of the people In the short time there is at one's disposal, one cannot go into all the arguments on this matter. They were very thoroughly thrashed out in Committee about 18 months ago on the Bill which was brought in by the Labour party, and which died a natural death.
§ Viscountess ASTORNo, no, a most unnatural death!
§ Lieut.-Colonel ARCHER-SHEEIn the first place, it is sought to enfranchise 5,000,000 women between the ages of 21 and 30. Already there are about an equal number of women and men voters in this country. [HON. MEMBERS: "NO!"] There are nearly so, and, as a matter of fact, there are two million more women than there are men in the country. That is the reason, and I submit a very good reason, why in 1918, when the Representation of the People Bill was before the House, Mr. Speaker's Committee, in a sort of agreed Bill, gave the vote to women over 30. That age was put in so as to equalise the number of men and women voters. I do not believe that there is any demand for the vote by girls of from 21 to 30, who have the greatest contempt for politicians.
§ Viscountess ASTORSpeak for yourself.
§ Lieut.-Colonel ARCHER-SHEEYou are only proposing to give the vote to people who really do not want it. Only to-day, as Hon. Treasurer of the London Municipal Society, a very successful society, I received a report that 40 per cent, of the new electors, who are mainly women, did not go to the poll, and you cannot get them to go to the poll at all.
§ Viscountess ASTORHow many men go to the poll?
§ Lieut.-Colonel ARCHER-SHEEThose are only just a few reasons against the Bill. I hope that hon. Members will screw up their courage to vote against it and not run away from the Division, because I am quite convinced that they will receive the support of all the younger women in their constituencies, who do not in the least want to be bothered with the vote.
§ Question put, "That leave be given to bring in a Bill to extend the suffrage to women on the same terms as men."
§ The House divided: Ayes, 208; Noes, 60.
1291| Division No. 40.] | AYES. | [4.5 p.m. |
| Acland, Rt. Hon. Francis D. | Barton, Sir William (Oldham) | Breese, Major Charles E. |
| Adkins, Sir William Ryland Dent | Bell, James (Lancaster, Ormskirk) | Brittain, Sir Harry |
| Agg-Gardner, Sir James Tynte | Bellairs, Commander Carlyon W. | Broad, Thomas Tucker |
| Allen, Lieut.-Col. Sir William James | Benn, Captain Wedgwood (Leith) | Bromfield, William |
| Ammon, Charles George | Bethell, Sir John Henry | Brown, James (Ayr and Bute) |
| Asquith, Rt. Hon. Herbert Henry | Blades, Sir George Rowland | Bruton, Sir James |
| Astor, Viscountess | Blake, Sir Francis Douglas | Burn, T. H. (Belfast, St. Anne's) |
| Barker, G. (Monmouth, Abertillery) | Borwick, Major G. O. | Cairns, John |
| Barnett, Major Richard W. | Bowles, Colonel H. F. | Campion, Lieut.-Colonel W. R. |
| Barrand, A. R. | Bowyer, Captain G. W. E. | Carter, W. (Nottingham, Mansfield) |
| Bartley-Denniss, Sir Edmund Robert | Bramsdon, Sir Thomas | Casey, T. W. |
| Chadwick, Sir Robert Burton | Hurst, Lieut.-Colonel Gerald B. | Randies, Sir John Scurrah |
| Clay, Lieut.-Colonel H. H. Spender | Irving, Dan | Rees, Capt. J. Tudor- (Barnstaple) |
| Clough, Sir Robert | Jephcott, A. R. | Remer, J. R. |
| Clynes, Rt. Hon. John R. | Jesson, C. | Remnant, Sir James |
| Cockerill, Brigadier-General G. K. | John, William (Rhondda, West) | Rendall, Athelstan |
| Colfox, Major Wm. Phillips | Johnstone, Joseph | Richardson, Sir Alex. (Gravesend) |
| Coote, Colin Reith (Isle of Ely) | Jones, Sir Evan (Pembroke) | Richardson, R. (Houghton-le-Spring) |
| Cope, Major William | Jones, Henry Haydn (Merioneth) | Roberts, Frederick O. (W. Bromwlch) |
| Cowan, Sir H. (Aberdeen and Kinc.) | Jones, Morgan (Caerphilly) | Robertson, John |
| Davies, A. (Lancaster, Clitheroe) | Kelley, Major Fred (Rotherham) | Robinson, S. (Brecon and Radnor) |
| Davies, Evan (Ebbw Vale) | Kennedy, Thomas | Rodger, A. K. |
| Davies, Rhys John (Westhoughton) | Kenworthy, Lieut.-Commander J. M. | Rose, Frank H. |
| Davison, J. E. (Smethwick) | Kiley, James Daniel | Royce, William Stapleton |
| Devlin, Joseph | Knight, Major E. A. (Kidderminster) | Seddon, J. A. |
| Doyle, N. Grattan | Lambert, Rt. Hon. George | Seely, Major-General Rt. Hon. John |
| Edge, Captain Sir William | Law, Alfred J. (Rochdale) | Shaw, Hon. Alex. (Kilmarnock) |
| Ednam, Viscount | Lawson, John James | Shaw, Thomas (Preston) |
| Edwards, C. (Monmouth, Bedwellty) | Lewis, T. A. (Glam., Pontypridd) | Shaw, William T. (Forfar) |
| Edwards, Major J. (Aberavon) | Lindsay, William Arthur | Short, Alfred (Wednesbury) |
| Elliot, Capt. Walter E. (Lanark) | Locker-Lampson, G. (Wood Green) | Sitch, Charles H. |
| Erskine, James Malcolm Monteith | Locker-Lampson, Com. O. (H'tingd'n) | Spencer, George A. |
| Farquharson, Major A. C. | Loseby, Captain C. E. | Sprot, Colonel Sir Alexander |
| Fildes, Henry | Lunn, William | Sueter, Rear-Admiral Murray Fraser |
| Finney, Samuel | Lynn, R. J. | Sugden, W. H. |
| Flannery, Sir James Fortescue | M'Connell, Thomas Edward | Sutton, John Edward |
| Foot, Isaac | Macdonald, Rt. Hon. John Murray | Taylor, J. |
| Ford, Patrick Johnston | McLaren, Robert (Lanark, Northern) | Thomas, Brig-Gen. Sir O. (Anglesey) |
| Fraser, Major Sir Keith | McMIcking, Major Gilbert | Thomas, Sir Robert J. (Wrexham) |
| Frece, Sir Walter de | McNeill, Ronald (Kent, Canterbury) | Thomson, F. C. (Aberdeen, South) |
| Galbraith, Samuel | Mallalieu, Frederick William | Thomson, T. (Middlesbrough, West) |
| Gardiner, James | Malone, C. L. (Leyton, E.) | Thorne, G. R. (Wolverhampton, E.) |
| Gillis, William | Malone, Major P. B. (Tottenham, S.) | Thome, W. (West Ham, Plaistow) |
| Glanville, Harold James | Marks, Sir George Croydon | Thorpe, Captain John Henry |
| Glyn, Major Ralph | Martin, A. E. | Tickler, Thomas George |
| Goff, Sir R. Park | Matthews, David | Tillett, Benjamin |
| Graham, D. M. (Lanark, Hamilton) | Middlebrook, Sir William | Turton, Edmund Russborough |
| Greenwood, William (Stockport) | Moles, Thomas | Waddington, R. |
| Greig, Colonel Sir James William | Moore, Major-General Sir Newton J. | Wallace, J. |
| Grundy, T. W. | Morris, Richard | Walsh, Stephen (Lancaster, Ince) |
| Guest, J. (York, W. R., Hemsworth) | Mosley, Oswald | Walton, J. (York, W. R., Don Valley) |
| Hacking, Captain Douglas H. | Murray, Hon, A. C. (Aberdeen) | Watson, Captain John Bertrand |
| Hall, F. (York, W. R., Normanton) | Murray, John (Leeds, West) | Watts-Morgan, Lieut.-Col. D. |
| Halls, Walter | Myers, Thomas | Wedgwood, Colonel Josiah C. |
| Hancock, John George | Naylor, Thomas Ellis | Wignall, James |
| Hannon, Patrick Joseph Henry | Newman, Colonel J. R. P. (Finchley) | Williams, Aneurin (Durham, Consett) |
| Harmsworth, Hon. E. C. (Kent) | Newman, sir R. H. S. D. L. (Exeter) | Williams, Col. P. (Middlesbrough, E.) |
| Hartshorn, Vernon | Newson, Sir Percy Wilson | Wilson, James (Dudley) |
| Hayday, Arthur | Nicholson, Brig.-Gen. J. (Westminster) | Wilson, Rt. Hon. J. W. (Stourbridge) |
| Hennessy, Major J. R. G. | Nicholson, Reginald (Doncaster) | Windsor, Viscount |
| Herbert, Col. Hon. A. (Yeovil) | Norton-Griffiths, Lieut.-Col. Sir John | Wintrlngham, Margaret |
| Hilder, Lieut-Colonel Frank | Ormsby-Gore. Hon. William | Wise, Frederick |
| Hinds, John | Palmer, Major Godfrey Mark | Wood, Sir H. K. (Woolwich, West) |
| Hirst, G. H. | Palmer, Brigadier-General G. L. | Wood, Major Sir S. Hill- (High Peak) |
| Hoare, Lieut.-Colonel Sir S. J. G. | Parkinson, John Allen (Wigan) | Yeo, Sir Alfred William |
| Hodge, Rt. Hon. John | Peel, Col. Hon. S. (Uxbrldge, Mddx.) | Young, Robert (Lancaster, Newton) |
| Hogge, James Myles | Perkins, Walter Frank | |
| Hope, Lt. Col. Sir J A. (Midlothian) | Perring, William George | TELLERS FOR THE AYES.— |
| Hope, J. D. (Berwick & Haddington) | Pinkham, Lieut.-Colonel Charles | Lord Robert Cecil and Mr. Arthur Henderson. |
| Hotchkin, Captain Stafford Vere | Rae, H. Norman | |
| Hunter, General Sir A. (Lancaster) | Raeburn, Sir William H. | |
| NOES. | ||
| Armstrong, Henry Bruce | Hamilton, Major C. G. C. | Pownall, Lieut.-Colonel Assheton |
| Atkey, A. R. | Hopkins, John W. W. | Roberts, Samuel (Hereford, Hereford) |
| Banbury, Rt. Hon. Sir Frederick G. | Hopkinson, A. (Lancaster, Mossley) | Rutherford, Colonel Sir J. (Darwen) |
| Bell, Lieut.-Col. W. C. H. (Devizes) | Jackson, Lieut.-Colonel Hon. F. S. | Sharman-Crawford, Robert G. |
| Bigland, Alfred | Kidd, James | Smith, Sir Malcolm (Orkney) |
| Buchanan, Lieut.-Colonel A. L. H. | Lane-Fox, G. R. | Smithers, Sir Alfred W. |
| Bull, Rt. Hon. Sir William James | Larmor, Sir Joseph | Starkey, Captain John Ralph |
| Carew, Charles Robert S. | Lloyd, George Butler | Steel, Major S. Strang |
| Coats, Sir Stuart | Lowther, Major C. (Cumberland, N.) | Stewart, Gershom |
| Cooper, Sir Richard Ashmole | Lowther, Col. Claude (Lancaster) | Townley, Maximilian G |
| Dean, Commander P. T. | Lyle, C. E. Leonard | Townshend, Sir Charles Vere Ferrers |
| Elliott, Lt.-Col. Sir G. (Islington, W.) | M'Lean, Lieut.-Col. Charles W. W. | White, Col. G. D. (Southport) |
| Falle, Major Sir Bertram Godtray | Macquisten, F. A. | Wills, Lt.-Col. Sir Gilbert Alan H. |
| Fell, Sir Arthur | Magnus, Sir Philip | Wilson, Lt.-Col. Sir M. (Bethnal Gn) |
| Forestier-Walker, L. | Mitchell, Sir William Lane | Winfrey, Sir Richard |
| Forrest, Walter | Molson, Major John Eisdale | Yate, Colonel Sir Charles Edward |
| Fremantle, Lieut.-Colonel Francis E. | Morden, Col. W. Grant | Young, W. (Perth & Kinross, Perth) |
| Gee, Captain Robert | Nail, Major Joseph | |
| Gwynne, Rupert S. | Pearce, Sir William | TELLERS FOR THE NOES.— |
| Hailwood, Augustine | Pennefather, De Fonblanque | Lieut.-Colonel Archer-Shee and Mr. G. Murray. |
| Hall, Lieut.-Col. Sir F. (Dulwich) | Phillpps, Sir Owen C. (Chester, City) | |
| Hambro, Angus Valdemar |
§ Bill ordered to be brought in by Lord Robert Cecil, Major Hills, Sir Donald Maclean, Mr. Arthur Henderson, Mrs. Wintringham, Viscountess Astor, and Mr. Aneurin Williams.