AN IMPERIAL ARGUMENT AGAINST FEMALE SUFFRAGE.
rro THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."1
Siu,—The Spectator has from time to time given many excel- lent reasons for its resistance to the demand for female suffrage. Will you permit me to suggest yet another which does not seem to have been noticed, either by advocates or opponents of the movement ? Military force apart, our Indian Empire rests mainly on the loyalty of the classes and the contentment of the masses, and any measure likely to impair that loyalty and contentment should be jealously scrutinised. Can it be doubted that they would be seriously affected by the adoption of woman suffrage in the United Kingdom ? Every moderately well-informed native of India is aware Olathe is governed in the last resort by the British 3fajlis, or Parliament, and any one with a practical know- ledge of the country will readily understand the feelings with which a Sikh, a Pathan. a Rajput, or, indeed, any average Hindu or Mussulman, would learn that in future that body was to be elected by women as well as by men. It is easy to imagine the polite incredulity, passing into astonishment, with which they would listen to such an announcement from, say, an English district officer, and the scorn and indignation with which they would discuss it among themselves. The reasonableness of such feelings may be matter of opinion, but that they would be aroused hardly admits of doubt. The idea of a Queen regnant is familiar to Indians, but the notion of women at large having an equal voice with men in the election of the Assembly by which they are ultimately governed would seem to them absurd and degrading, and its redaction to practice would strongly tend to undermine their loyalty to British rule. Such considera- tions as these may not appeal to the thoroughgoing "suffragette," who would perhaps be ready to cry : "Perish India, but let women have the vote !" But with minds of saner temper the argument from the danger to which female suffrage would expose the Indian Empire should surely carry some weight.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Savile Club. H. C. Iawrs, B.C.S. (Retired).
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