THE WEARING OF HATS
SIR,—We are told in the Press that the House of Commons announces that the Lord Chancellor is consulting the Lord Chief Justice, the Master of the Rolls, and the President of the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division regarding the wearing of hats in Law Courts by women. The result of the deliberations of this weighty body on a matter of such national importance is to be announced later.
Some time ago Mr. A. H. Leick, formerly Chief Clerk at Bow Street Police Court, said that, just as there was no law requiring a prisoner to stand, so there was none making it compulsory for a woman to wear a hat in court—unless it was the principle once enunciated in the Star Chamber that magistrates were gods. Mr. E. G. Hemmerde, the Liver- pool Recorder, said on one occasion, at Liverpool Quarter Sessions. that women could come into his court dressed as they pleased. He wished the officials there to understand that women, whether serving on juries or as witnesses, might dress as they liked in court. There was, he con- tinued, no sort of historic or religidus basis for the absurd business of telling women that in court hats must be worn.
May I quote one of your own contributors? Some of your readers may have forgotten what he wrote on this subject: " The hat fetish is very curious and interesting. It is hard to find any authority which empowers a magistrate to insist that women shall wear hats in court, or stockings, or any other particular garment. There is no right to refuse justice to a litigant in a bathing-costume, let alone to dictate on minor points of dress."
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