The Committee for Privileges of the House of Lords last
week reversed its former decision in favour of .Lady Rhondda's claim to a writ of summons. Why the Committee should have decided one way in March and the other way in May, and why the late Attorney-General should have supported the claim While his successor opposed it, are problems with which the lay mind cannot grapple. The Sex Disqualification Removal Act of 1919 was intended and commonly -believed to place women on an equal footing with men. in every -iespect. The House of -Lords is, of .ncanne,:the guardian :of _ita own -_privileges, as ft
showed;: for instance,. in the well-known case of the life peerage conferred on Lord Wensleydale in 1856. But it must be. pre- sumed to have known what it was doing when it accepted the Act of 1919. The wording of that statute ought to be conclusive, whatever reservations the peers may have made in debate or in private conversation. Our sympathies are with Lady Rhondda and her fellow. peeresges, who are excluded from the House of Lords simply because of their sex.
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