Hold an election — and let women use their hard won right to vote
SOME people are already saying that the Germans are hoisting the white flag, but Prince Max is no more a democrat than his Imperial patron.
If the Germans had any thought of real peace in their hearts, would they have set Douai, Cambrai and St Quentin in flames?
No, they will go on battling so long as there is a Hohenzollern on the throne, so long as militarism grips their nation like a vice.
Because the war may still last a long time, I urge that we cannot honestly go on fighting ‘to make the world safe for democracy’ while we have a Parliament that holds our own democracy in suspension. Our last election was held in 1910. This Parliament died, as Mr Asquith has admitted, in January 1916, nearly three years ago. We have a Government which does not exercise powerful authority because it has no mandate.
It does not express the will of millions of newly enfranchised men and women who were given the vote in February, but have been denied the right to use it because Parliament refuses to ask their opinion.
There is only one remedy for this grave violation of constitutional principles.
An election is needed to answer one clear and pressing question. Is it the will of the nation that the war shall be prosecuted in common with our Allies until the Kaiser and his gang are brought to book for their foul deeds, and until the Allies are able to dictate a just and lasting peace?
We stand in need of a great national uplifting, of a revival of unity, of a declaration that we are in this conflict for the salvation of humanity unto the end.
I have heard it bleated that a general election would ‘weaken our national unity’. Why, it would restore it! It would put an end to the squabbles and grumbles, the secret wonderings about whether our people really care about victory, the vague hints that perhaps our working classes may not have the courage to endure a long war.
When the men and women of this country are asked if they wish this war to be fought to the only possible finish, what will their answer be?
There will be such a shout of assent that it will reach the stars. It will shake the Hohenzollern on his tottering throne. It will be worth a dozen battles.
We cannot urge Russia to convoke a new constituent assembly, demand a free parliament for a new Poland, insist upon popular and separate forms of government for the Yugoslavs and other oppressed races, and thrust fresh representative assemblies upon the peoples of India while we give millions of our own men and six million women the vote, then deny them the right to use it for years to come.
Before we demand liberties for others, we must see that our own liberties are unfettered and beyond reproach.
Our new democracy must be given the chance to register the proof it is worthy of its new privileges, and in the matter of this war the whole nation is at one.
Our women must have the chance not only to exercise their new rights but to repel the shameful accusation that they will vote pacifist.
I believe a general election will lead to a national awakening such as not witnessed since 1914.
It will be all over in a day, and we shall go on with our work conscious of renewed strength and resolution, and knowing we have signified afresh our invincible steadfastness.