Feeble-Minded Facts: Liberal women’s Views on the Subject: A Unanimous Plea for the Bill: Some extraordinarily impressive speeches marked the first day’s proceedings of the annual conference of the Women’s National Liberal Association which opened yesterday in the Connaught Rooms, Great Queen Street. … … There could have been nothing more moving, for example, than the recital of actual happenings with which Mrs. Pinsent and Mr. W. H. Dickinson, M.P., made out their case for the Mental Deficiency Bill; and the absolute unanimity with which this representative group of Liberal women supported the measure is a notable thing for those who base their campaign against it upon “the liberty of the subject.” “Those who talk of the liberty of the subject,” observed Mrs. McKenna, who presided, “know little of the subject of liberty”; and on this head Mrs. Pinsent produced the appallingly red chart of the life of a feeble-minded woman who has been convicted over 200 times, generally of being drunk and disorderly. Stupid Punishment: “Her liberty has been somewhat interfered with”, Mrs. Pinsent remarked, “in a manner that is of absolutely no good to her or to the community. When we get the Bill through, we shall be able to stop this stupid punishment of the feebleminded.” Mrs. McKenna said that “the Home Secretary intended, to-day or to-morrow, to reintroduce the Bill which had been framed to give effect to the recommendations of the Royal Commission.” … (continues at length) …
Transcribed in whole or part from scanned originals: Presented with or without modified text and punctuation. For absolute accuracy refer to the original newspapers. Source: The British Newspaper Archive.
Referenced
GRO0245 Devonport: Ellen Frances Parker: 1866 – 1949