The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-07-06
Women of England Up in Arms
to Aid Lady RhOndda.
Refusal of House of Lords to
Seat Her To Be Costly.
NEXT ELECTIONS ARE TEST
WOmen's Vote May Serve to
Beat Lloyd George, Is Fear.
His Administration Blamed for
"EvaSiOn" of New Laws.

London, July 6.-Coalition MEM
bers of parliament are manifesting
alarm as to what effect the refusal
to allow peeresses to sit IN the house
of lords may have on the votes of wo-
men at the next general election
Should women in any large numbers
vote against the governmental candi-
dates IL is certain that many of them
would be defeated, and probably Pre-
mier Lloyd George would no longer be
able TO command a majority in parlia-
ment- Therefore they are anxious
that the government be not saddled
with responsibility for a decision
which was made by the lords them
selves and in which the government
was not openly involved
Government to Blame.
--Yiscountess Rhondda and leaders of
the women's movement generally are
determined that the government shall
be saddled with the responsibility
which belongs to it and not be al
lowed to shirk 1t If they can help il.
Lady Rhondda herself says that the
decision to exclude peeresses from the
upper chamber was virtually that of
the government and not OF the house
Of lords.
She points out that tn original
house OF lords committee on privileges
decided by seven to one IN favor Of
the right of peeresSeS 70 vote in the
house. Ordinarily sucn a decision,
supported by such a majority. would
have been adopted by the lords with
out question
But the lord chancellor, Lord Birk-
enhead, member of the cabinet, in
tervened with an amendment refer
ring the matter back to the commit
tee for reconsideration. And reconsid-
ration by a committee which in the
interval had been strengthened sby
lords of Lord. Birkenhead's own way
of thinking, resulted in reversing the
seven to one decision.
The committee decided 20 votes to
four that peeresses should not sit and
vote in the house OF lords.
On Birkenhead's Head.
at seems pretty certain" says Lady
Rhondda, that had it not been for
the lord chancellor women otherwise
qualified would not be excluded from
the house CT lords on the ground Of
sex
The sex disqualification removal
act starts with the opening generaliZa-
ton, "A person shall not be disquali-
fled by sex or marriage from the ex-
ercise of any public function" and
was loudly acclaimed as WOmen'S new
charter of liberty. But the act which
purports to give equal opportunities
for men and women, Lady Rhondda
point out, has availed women nothing
when challenged. Women in the civil
service have been refused the same
rights as men. Women doctors in the
employ of municipalities have been
deprived Oh their pOsltlOnS Wnen they
married, altho the act specifically
stated that marriage no longer be a
bar to public service.
The government has made many
thousands of enemies, Lady Rhondda
says, by its failure to support its own
act. The question today is" says
Lady Rhondda, does the sex disquali-
fication removal act mean what it
appears to mean, or was it simply a
clever fraud perpetrated on a section
OF the Cnmn1nnifV fn
lodges by an unscrupulous goyern-