July 31 1924
It has now, I understand, been definitely decided by the British Government to pass in the autumn session the Representation of the People Act (1918) Amendment Bill. It may therefore be taken for granted that the measure will become law before Christmas.
This is the Bill which gives votes to women on the same terms as men: at 21 years of age and upwards both for parliamentary and local government elections.
When the measure was introduced it was stated that it would not apply to Northern Ireland. Since then protests have been made to Mr [Ramsay] MacDonald against the exclusion of the Six Counties, and it is hoped that these will have the result of extending the Bill to Northern Ireland.
While the franchise had been extended to all women over 21 in the Irish Free State in 1922, it was not extended to all women in Britain and Northern Ireland until 1928.
Test of Good Faith
The judges selected to advise the government on the point have lost no time in deciding that a Boundary Commission cannot legally be set up under Article 12 of the Treaty as it stands. The advisers of the northern government have gained their point thus far.
It will now be for the government to take steps to ensure that the Treaty is not wrecked on this miserable point of law.
The northern government has evaded its responsibility by taking advantage of loose draughtsmanship, and by refusing to appoint a commissioner has delayed the bringing of a commission into existence.
The commission, however, is a vital part of the Treaty, an indispensable condition of its fulfilment, and it is for the British Parliament to say if the government has its sanction in the action it proposes to take to carry out that condition, on which the Treaty was signed and accepted.
The responsibility is a serious one. It involves the good faith of Great Britain in the eyes of the world. It involves also either the settlement or the continuation of a national crisis in Ireland fraught with danger.
