Mrs Corbett Ashby, in her presidential address yesterday to the British Commonwealth League at the Royal Society of Arts, John-street, Adelphi, said the most notable tendency in Colonial policy was the effort to associate native forms of government brought in from outside.
Asking how women were to fit into the system, Mrs Corbett Ashby said :- "Governors' wives remind me of curates' wives. They are called upon to second the efforts of their husbands, to show an interest in girls' schools, women prisoners and women staffs of hospitals, and generally to be kind and understanding. But not for one moment are they to have any responsibility of their own.
"Whereas really great efforts are made to prevent the oppression of men by men, practically no efforts are made to prevent the oppression of women. The latest instance is that while women have been admitted to the Bar in Palestine the admission has been promptly followed by an Order in Council which refuses to women barristers access to the Courts when any case is tried in religious law. Almost the whole of Jewish and Arab law is religious, and so they are excluded from practically the whole sphere of native law."
Dr Jans Walker, opening a discussion on problems of power, said: - "There is a great deal of talk of men and women standing shoulder to shoulder and walking bravely along together. That is very beautiful and highly satisfactory in theory; only in practice the man's shoulder is apt to get well in front and the woman to be left behind.
"I feel strongly that, for the present, separate organisations for women are absolutely necessary. Medical women form about 9 per cent of the whole profession and less than that percentage of the British Medical Association. If the women were simply absorbed in the B.M.A. their point of view would hardly be heard, and they would simply be crowded out. But when they can speak with one voice from all over the country their voice does make a real impression. That is why we have the Medical Women's Federation."
