1 JUNE 1912, Page 3

Mr. Keir Hardie, who presided at a woman suffrage meet-

ing on Saturday night at Merthyr, referred to a fresh develop- ment on the part of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. Hitherto the Union had not taken any pronounced stand in favour of one party or against another, but they had recently come to a decision of a very significant and far-reach- ing kind, and, owing to the fact that the Labour Party alone bad votes for women in its programme, they were about to raise an election fund to assist Labour candidates. Assuming the state- ment to be correct, we cannot imagine any step more effectively designed to detach moderate suffragists from active participa- tion in the movement as well as to weaken the Labour Party.