14 JUNE 1945, Page 14

WOMEN AND PARLIAMENT

Snt,—I am sorry that Miss Rebecca West has failed so completely to understand the aims and arguments of my article. The " explanation " which she gives of the lack of success of women candidates leads nowhere in this connection, for she herself attributes the actions of the party machines to the desire "to avoid challenging any prejudice on the part of the electorate "—and that electorate contains more women than men. So we are back where we were, and Miss West by implication agrees with what she calls my "unfounded assumptions "—though these, by the way, were questions, not assumptions. I think if Miss West would re-read my article with rather • more patience she would find little in it with which to disagree.

Finally, may I suggest that to attempt to discredit my article by the use of the epithet " artless " is a -trick unworthy of a distinguished writer and not very complimentary to you, Sir ; and n.ay I also point out that I am not and never have been a "Miss."—Yours faithfully, Stanley Road, Liverpool, 5.