BELGIUM.
On November 23, 1918, five days after the armistice which ended the World War the National Federation for Woman Suffrage in Belgium resumed its activities with an open letter to the Labor Party, referring to their manifesto for universal suffrage and reminding them that this included women. A little later it addressed an appeal to the newly established Government and started a petition. In the midst of the war King Albert and Queen Elizabeth had expressed themselves in favor of the enfranchisement of women but when he opened the first Parliament after it was over he recommended only equal, universal suffrage for men. Notwithstanding the unfavorable conditions the petition soon had 35,000 signatures and was sent to the Parliament. By midwinter of 1919 the question was one of heated controversy among the parties, which continued. By April the petition had reached 175,000. The Catholics favored woman suffrage, the Liberals and Socialists opposed it, fearing the influence of the church. To avoid a dissolution of the Parliament a compromise was finally effected by which the parliamentary vote was given to "all widows of soldiers and civilians killed by the enemy, or, where there is no widow, to the mother"; and to "all women condemned or imprisoned for patriotic acts during the enemy occupation." This enfranchised about 30,000 women and was only to be in effect until a Constituent Assembly should be elected which would revise the electoral law.
Meanwhile a bill for the Municipal or Communal franchise for women was introduced. Plural voting for men was abolished; a general election took place November 16 and the new Parliament met in December. The necessary two-thirds vote for the Parliamentary suffrage for women seemed impossible but the three parties were virtually pledged to give the Municipal. After three months of controversy and suspense this Communal franchise was granted in the Chamber of Deputies on March 3, 1920, to all women 21 years of age, by vote of 120 to 37. All the Catholics voted in favor; all the Liberals but two against it—Burgomaster Max and Paul Hymans, Minister of Foreign Affairs; the Socialist vote was divided, 45 of the 56 in favor. It was accepted in the Senate April 14 by 60 to 33.
The commission on revising the constitution refused by 11 to 9 votes to include the Parliamentary franchise for women but recommended unanimously their eligibility to sit in both chambers. This was accepted in June by the Deputies by 142 to 10 votes. On July 1 they rejected by a vote of 89 to 74 a bill giving the complete suffrage to women. On July 28 they voted by a large majority for a clause that any future Parliament might do this by a two-thirds vote without a revision of the constitution.
LUXEMBURG.
Under the Treaty of Peace after the war Luxemburg became an independent government with its own Parliament. There was a temporary Constituent Assembly and on May 8, 1919, without even an effort by women, this body adopted universal suffrage, without distinction of sex, by a vote of 39 to 11. All inhabitants 21 years of age are electors and after 25 are eligible for the Parliament and Communal Councils. On September 28 men and women voted on the country's future form of government and decided by a four-fifths vote to have an independent monarchy with an elected Parliament. A month later the elections for it took place. One of the two women candidates was elected.
RUSSIA.
It would be difficult to relate the story of woman suffrage in Russia. In the villages and among the peasants women had long voted at the local elections either as proxies of the husband or by right of owning property, and among the nobility and wealthy classes they could vote through male proxies. There was little national suffrage even among men and the Revolution after the Russo-Japanese war was a struggle for representation. In March, 1905, a Russian Union of Defenders of Women's Rights was started in Moscow and spread among different classes throughout Russia. It became a part of the general movement for liberty, was well organized and its demands were many but the first one was for a Constituent Assembly elected by universal, secret ballot. It united with the great political Union of Unions, which officially recognized the equal rights of women in all respects in July, 1905, and before the end of the year this had been done by many municipalities.
Everything was stopped by the Revolution and that was followed by the establishment of the Douma. All that women hoped for from it was wrecked when it was dissolved. Their Union at this time had 79 branches and 10,000 members and had collected and used $50,000 for its work. The struggle was continued but two years later not 1,000 members could be found. In December, 1908, the first Women's Congress in Russia was held in St. Petersburg, welcomed by the Mayor and addressed by members of Parliament and eminent women, and was favorably received. Many women's societies were formed but worked under great difficulties. Woman suffrage bills came before the Douma and it passed one giving the Municipal franchise, after striking out eligibility, but the Czar did not sign it. A bill for adult suffrage was taken up and Professor Miliukov made a brilliant plea for enfranchising women but it was not passed and the suffrage had not been granted to women at the beginning of the war in 1914.
In the second revolution in 1917 women took practically the same part as men and in the Provisional Government which was the result there was no question as to their equal rights in suffrage and office holding. They were elected to the City Council of St. Petersburg and put on all public committees. Then came the counter revolution and chaos. From the beginning of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in 1904 Russian delegates, women of great ability, had come to its congresses with their reports but at the first meeting after the war, in Geneva in 1920, there was no word. When Russia eventually secures a stable government it probably will make no distinction between the political rights of men and women.