RADICAL ADVOCACY OF THE REFERENDUM. [To ens Burros or ens
4. tirecraeo."1 Sin,—Lord Murray of Elibank, erstwhile Liberal Whip and colleague of Mr. Lloyd George in the Ministry, recommends a Referendum on woman suffrage (Times, June 19th) because, as be says, "the leaders of parties in both Houses are in disagreement amongst themselves" on the subject. His solicitude is, of course, for the leaders of his own party. It is not his country, apparently, which he wants to save from further trouble, but his party. We who have advocated the Referendum for years have been trying, without success, to have a Referendum on the Home Rule Bill to save our country from civil war, risking the interests of every party to that end. The important thing, however, to remember now is that, with a stroke of his pen, Lord Murray sweeps away all the objections of the party in power to the Referendum, which were thus summarized by Mr. Lloyd George at the Albert Hall in February, 1912 (I quote from Votes for Women, March 1st, 1912) :—
" Whatever objections there may be to the Referendum on questions like Home Rule and Welsh Disastablishment which we Liberals entertain, it seems to me that they apply with twofold force to the cause of Women's Suffrage. What are they ? That it undermines the authority of Parliament; that the Referendum is costly, not merely to the State, but to those who have charge of great causes ; that it is a bonus on injustice, especially on opulent, powerful, rich injustice ; that it helps the monopolist against the poor, the helpless, the least powerful members of the community."
Mr. Lloyd George ended his denunciation by a diatribe against the working of the Referendum in America, of which he knows nothing whatever, and of which I shall only say that, during a very active public and professional life there during period of forty-five years, I never heard,of a man or woman who was not a supporter of it, and I challenge Mr. Lloyd George to name one. He had better make prompt and open confession of his error, and join Mr. Asquith and Lord Murray of Elibank in their admission that there are occasions on which the Referendum can be usefully employed, at least, to save his party from disaster, and incidentally perhaps his country from
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