§ 16. Miss RATHBONEasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he is aware that a new municipal ordinance for Palestine, intended to be promulgated early in this year, proposes to withdraw from Jewish women in Palestine the rights they have had for 10 years of voting and standing for election in municipal elections and to leave the High Commissioner to decide whether and to what extent Jewish women may exercise these rights; and whether he will endeavour to secure that any changes in 1719 women's rights in Palestine shall take the form of raising Arab women to the level of Jewish women rather than of debasing Jewish women to the level of Arab women?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERIt is not the case that Jewish women generally have enjoyed the right to vote and stand for election at municipal elections in Palestine. The Municipal Franchise Ordinance confines the right of voting and membership to men, but the purely Jewish township of Tel Aviv and certain Jewish villages, which are not municipalities, possess Local Councils constituted under the Local Councils Ordinance of 1921, and in these cases regulations have been issued under the authority of the High Commissioner which permit women to vote and stand for election. The preliminary draft of the new Local Government Ordinance, which is now being discussed with the municipal authorities in Palestine, follows existing municipal franchise legislation in limiting voting and membership to men. But it goes further than that legislation since it gives the High Commissioner discretion to extend to women the right to vote and to women voters the right to be councillors. I can see no ground for the suggestion that there is any intention of withdrawing from Jewish women in Palestine the rights of voting and election which they already enjoy.
§ Miss RATHBONEWill the right hon. Gentleman be kind enough to supplement his reply by saying whether I am correctly informed that all the Jewish councils, when questioned as to the proposed municipal ordinance, expressed their willingness to see women vote on the same terms as men; and, further, whether it is not the case that in Turkey and in India Moslem women are permitted to enjoy political rights; and in that case do not His Majesty's Government—
§ Miss RATHBONEMay I repeat my question?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERWith regard to the first point as to the opinion expressed by the municipalities, I do not know. The High Commissioner is, I understand, at the present time engaged in discussing the terms of the draft 1720 ordinance with them, and I have not heard from him the result of those discussions, nor do I think that they are concluded. As regards the general franchise position in India and other territories, I think that the appropriate Ministers would have to have notice of the question.
§ Miss RATHBONEIf it proves that a large number of the local councils are in favour of extending franchise rights to women, will not the right hon. Gentleman take courage to extend the voting rights of women so as to bring them at least up to the level of those in Oriental countries?
§ Sir P. CUNLIFFE-LISTERI think that that is rather a misconception. The High Commissioner under the Ordinance, if it is passed in its present form, will have the discretion to extend, and there is no doubt that he will exercise that discretion wisely.