| Description | Thanking Larmor for his letter. Quite apart from women's votes, the question before Parliament is serious, because it concerns membership of the University. He comments on Mr. Holt's proposal, as reported in the Press, which he considers bad, but which perhaps might be yielded to, for fear of something worse. Hayes Fisher has hinted at this, wishing that Oxford and Cambridge should fall in with the new universities, offering full membership to women: 'against this many of us, like Rawlinson, are prepared to die in the last ditch, because we feel that to effeminise a men's University such as Oxford or Cambridge, would be extremely harmful to the University, to the Nation, & to every one concerned'. He feels that a majority would be opposed to it and that enact it in Parliament would be 'a crime', especially during a Great War, when Parliament is moribund. His own opinion is that the solution to the Women's question should be the founding of a great University for women, to which colleges such as Girton and Newnham could be attached. There have been articles favouring this by Bishop G.F. Browne and others. Women should have their desired education, he feels, but not the management of men's education in the University. The Committee of the Universities and Colleges Association will meet next week to discuss the question, and he asks for a copy of the account in Hansard. |