go WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE 



in March 1912, after the window-breaking raid, and in July 1912, after the Dublin out- 

 rages. But the appeals were unheeded. On September 2ist women suffragists inter- 

 rupted a speech by Mr. Lloyd George at Llanystumdwy, and were very roughly handled 

 by the crowd; while in Dublin, after the attack on Mr. Asquith on July igth, the 

 suffragists barely escaped being thrown into the Liffey. New forms of irritation were 

 now introduced. On the night of November 28th an organised attempt was made to 

 destroy by corrosive liquid the contents of a large number of pillar post boxes in London 

 and certain provincial towns; and other similar occurrences continued during the year. 



Meanwhile, on November 5, 1912, Mr. Philip Snowden moved as an amendment to 

 the Home Rule Bill for Ireland that the local government register should be substituted 

 for the parliamentary register, a measure which would have enfranchised Irish women 

 ratepayers; but the amendment was lost by 314 votes to 141. It was supported by five- 

 sixths of the Labour members present. On November 26th Mr. George Lansbury, who- 

 had resigned his seat in the House of Commons as member for Bow & Bromley in order 

 to test the feeling of his constituency on the suffrage question failed to secure re-election, 

 when he stood as a Suffragist and Socialist candidate. 



The final blow to hopes of early legislation was dealt when in February 1913 the 



government dropped its Franchise Bill, and the proposed amendment to include women 



went with it. The Speaker unexpectedly ruled that if Sir E. Grey's amend- 



withdrawai mejit were carried, to that effect, it would become a different Bill from the 



F thC hi one ^traduced and must begin de novo: and no other course was possible 



BUI. but to withdraw it. This disappointment added fresh fuel to the flames 



of "militancy," and its activity was shown in a further series of outbreaks, 



including the destruction of letters in pillar-boxes and a bomb explosion at Mr. Lloyd 



George's country-house, which was in process of building. 



Outside Great Britain the chief advance of the movement has been in California, 

 where woman suffrage was adopted on October 10, 1911 by a small majority. Mr. 

 Roosevelt during his election campaign of 1912 appealed to the women 

 Woman of California, and it was claimed that his success at the " primaries " was 

 outside^Qreat P art ly due to their support. In Michigan, Kansas and Arizona a state 

 Britain. referendum on November 5th gave a result in favour of woman suffrage. 

 On the other hand, in the state of Ohio, woman suffrage was rejected on 

 September 4, 1912, and a state referendum in Wisconsin on November 5th also resulted 

 adversely. In Norway a woman, Anna Rogstad, who had been elected as a vice-deputy 

 to the Storthing in 1909, actually took her seat there in March 1911 for a fortnight; but 

 in the elections of October 1912 no woman candidate was successful even as vice-deputy. 

 Iceland during 1911 adopted woman suffrage, but as the measure had to be passed by 

 two successive parliaments, it could not become operative until 1913. A woman 

 suffrage bill was recommended in Sweden in the speech from the Throne at the opening 

 of Parliament, January 16, 1912. The bill introduced by the Social Democrats passed 

 the Second Chamber in May 1912, by 66 votes; but was rejected in the First Chamber 

 by 28 votes. In Denmark a Government bill to amend the constitution, which included 

 the extension of the franchise to all women over 25, was introduced in October 1912, and 

 passed the Lower House by a large majority on December i3th. 



A deputation from the Women's Social and Political Union was received in London, 

 but not encouraged, by Mr. Borden, the Canadian Premier, on August 28, 1912, and a 

 threat was made of sending over members of the Union to inaugurate a militant cam- 

 paign in Canada. Miss I. Wylie left London for that purpose on September 29th. 



In June 1911 an International Woman Suffrage Alliance Congress met in Stockholm, 

 at which 24 countries were represented. In October 1912 this Congress met again in 

 London; and the Men's International Alliance for Woman Suffrage, formed during the 

 Stockholm Congress, also held its first Congress. QANET E. COURTNEY.) 



