Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/760

 744 HISTORY OF WOMAN SUFFRAGE ments to the law relating to the registration of voters. At last a way out was devised. Mr. Walter Long, president of the local government board, a typical conservative country gentle-* man and at that time an anti-suffragist, made the suggestion that the whole question of Electoral Reform, including the enfran- chisement of women, should be referred to a non-party Confer- ence, consisting of members of both Houses of Parliament and presided over by the Speaker. Mr. Asquith concurred and Par- liament agreed. Women's Suffrage was only one of many sub- jects connected with Electoral Reform which had to be dealt with by the Conference but it is not too much to say that if it had not been for the urgency of the claim of women to repre- sentation the Conference would never have been brought into existence. The members of this Conference were chosen by the Speaker, who was careful to give equal representation to suffragists and anti-suffragists. Sir John Simon and Sir Willoughby Dickin- son, members of the Conference, were very active and skilful in organising the forces in our favour. The Conference was called into being in October, 1916, and began its sittings at once. A ministerial crisis which occurred in December resulted in the resignation of Mr. Asquith and the appointment of Mr. Lloyd George as his successor. The Speaker enquired of the new Prime Minister if he desired the Conference to continue its labours. The reply was an emphatic affirmative. The Con- ference reported on January 27, 1917. Everyone knows that it recommended by a majority, some said a large majority, the granting of some measure of suffrage to women. Put as briefly as possible the franchise recommended for women was "house- hold franchise," and for the purposes of the bill a woman was reckoned to be a householder not only if she was so in her own right but if she were the wife of a householder. An age limit of thirty was imposed upon women, not because it was in any way logical or reasonable but simply and solely in order to produce a constituency in which the men were not out-num- bered by the women. Some few weeks earlier we had heard on unimpeachable au- thority that the new Prime Minister was "very keen and very