In the House of Lords on Thursday, May 21st, Lord
Astor made another attempt to pass his Bill for enabling peeresses in their own right to sit in the House. This time the Bill was lost by only two votes-80 to 78. The Bill while opening the House of Lords to peeresses in their own right deprived them of the Parliamentary vote. Lord Astor did not argue his case from the old point of view of women's rights ; he merely showed that as women sat in the House of Commons it was quite illogical that they should not be able to sit in the House of Lords. The Lords dealt with a great many matters upon which women's opinions would be particularly valuable. The House was already attacked for many reasons and " confirmed intellectual celibacy " only gave the opponents of the Upper House another weapon. If a general reform of the Upper House came it would certainly mean the introduction of nomination or election in some form and then women could not possibly be excluded. So why Wait ?
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