January 5
AUSTRALIA----book review
Mary Lee: The Irishwoman who became a leading light in Australia’s suffragist
movement----Activist campaigned into her 80s against war in Africa and to
abolish Australia’s death penalty; Mary Lee went to Australia at the age of 58
after being widowed while living in England
Book Title: Mary Lee
ISBN-13: 978-1743055960
Author: Denise George
Publisher: Wakefield Press
Guideline Price: £20.00
“A list should be taken of all openly disloyal and traitorous individuals. What
is so truly revolting is the venomous spite and hatred ventilated through the
public press by renegade English, or by Irish of the wrong sort - the ‘Mary
Lee’ type”. South Australian Advertiser, January 13th, 1900.
The above quote refers to one Mary Lee, born Mary Walsh in Co Monaghan, who
went to Australia at the age of 58 after being widowed while living in England.
While in Britain, she and her Armagh husband, George Lee, had taught the 3 Rs:
reading, writing and arithmetic, to poor children. After her husband’s death,
Mary and her daughter Evelyn sailed on the Orient, heading off to nurse her
ailing son, who died soon after their arrival in Australia. They never did
return to this side of the world, either because they didn’t have the money or
perhaps because Mary wanted to live away from the site of her bereavement.
Evelyn settled into her job, being a flume for telegraphs, words travelling by
sound on wire, words about all sorts of things: ships arriving, gold being
found, children being born, miners revolting. Mary threw herself into
socio-political life in her new place, becoming a leading light in the
suffragist movement, and more.
I first came across her name when I stumbled on a pamphlet in a library while
researching the 4,440-plus Famine orphan girls shipped to Australia between
1848 and 1850. Now there’s a word, “shipped”. It’s fraught with contentious
weight, you’re not allowed to say “transported” because that suggests they had
done something wrong. Equally, it’s a tad disingenuous to say “sailed”, as if
they had all woken up in their various workhouses and thought, “gosh I’d like
to go to Australia”. The word for their journey lies somewhere else, injured by
the manner of their going. (I wonder did Mary ever meet any of them, or come
near the periphery of their hurt?).
Activism
This is a book full of historical nuggets, casual references to all sorts of
fascinating facts, to chimney children covered in soot and Mary’s own son
working as a clerk at the age of 13. This in the English part of her life,
because there are three, Irish, English and Australian. Born in 1821, her
obituary written 10,000 miles away and 88 years later, states that she was born
in Kilnock Estate. The author of this book has, like myself, spent time trying
to pinpoint where exactly this might be. I’m erring towards the Monaghan/Tyrone
border, but it is also possible that the name got entangled with another, as
happened frequently on that long journey from here to there.
If we agree that there are 3 parts to her life, it’s hard to decide which is
the most important. Certainly the part that makes her remembered is the last,
which is a fine compliment to give the woman. When many others might have
folded into their grief, she grabbed injustice by the lapels and shook it
vigorously.
In today’s terms she lived, as some activists do, a life of unpaid public
service. She spearheaded many campaigns, most notably the right for women to
vote and be elected to parliament, but also ones to improve wages and working
conditions. She was well into her 80s when she fought to abolish the death
penalty, publicly opposed Australia’s involvement in war in Africa and
supported the abolition of bans on public bathing for minors, all contentious
issues that left her open to fierce criticism. About the latter, she showed
some admirable wit and common sense.
“I wish Mrs Grundy would retire into comfortable seclusion . . . and leave us
alone. Those youngsters - Heaven keep them - are enjoying their mixed ‘splash’
without a notion of harm. Why should they not? Some of them are from homes with
floor too near the ceiling to be comfortable in weather like this . . . But the
bathers! I don’t believe that Eve ever had petticoats and if Adam had britches
they left us no pattern – and they were both naked and not ashamed. Does not
half the moral dirt of the world spring from dirty suggestion? Let our
youngsters be taught to swim. Will our State Schools look into this?”
In 1994, to mark the centenary of the enfranchisement of women in South
Australia she was accorded recognition as a national hero, marked by a special
proof coin being issued by the mint in her honour. This book adds to that
honour.
(source: Irish Times)
VIETNAM:
Vietnam arrests 2 female drug traffickers
Police of Vietnam's northern Son La province said on Friday that they have
detained 2 local young women for transporting over 1.7 kg of synthetic drug.
The duo aged 20 and 28 from Son La's Thuan Chau district were arrested on
Thursday when they were transporting over 17,400 pills of lab-made drug. They
confessed that an identified man had hired them to transport the drug.
On Wednesday, a 30-year-old man from northern Son La province, which borders
Son La, was arrested for transporting over 2.4 kg of heroin from Son La to
Hanoi, according to the municipal police.
According to the Vietnamese law, those convicted of smuggling over 600 grams of
heroin or more than 2.5 kg of methamphetamine are punishable by death. Making
or trading 100 grams of heroin or 300 grams of other illegal drugs also faces
death penalty.
(source: xinhuanet.com)
SAUDI ARABIA:
5 face death penalty in Khashoggi killing----11 suspects make court appearance
in slaying of reporter
Saudi Arabia announced on Thursday it will seek the death penalty against 5
suspects in the slaying of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, a killing
that has seen members of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s entourage
implicated in the writer’s assassination.
Prosecutors announced that 11 suspects in the slaying attended their 1st court
hearing with lawyers, but the statement did not name those in court. It also
did not explain why 7 other suspects arrested over the Oct. 2 killing at the
Saudi Consulate in Istanbul did not immediately face formal charges. The
kingdom previously announced 18 people had been arrested.
Saudi officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The killing of Khashoggi, who wrote columns critical of Prince Mohammed, has
strained the decades-long ties the kingdom enjoys with the United States. It
also has added to a renewed international push to end the Saudi-led war in
Yemen.
The state-run Saudi Press Agency and state television gave few details about
the hearing.
“The Public Prosecutor demanded imposing proper punishments against the
defendants and is seeking capital punishment for five of the defendants for
their direct involvement in the murder,” a statement from prosecutors said,
without elaborating.
The suspects requested copies of the indictments they faced, as well as asked
for more time to prepare for their case, prosecutors said.
While vague on details about the case, prosecutors made a point to express
concerns about Turkey. They alleged that Turkish officials did not answer two
formal requests made for evidence in the case.
Officials in Ankara could not be immediately reached for comment. Turkish
officials have previously said they shared evidence with Saudi Arabia and other
nations over Khashoggi’s killing.
Turkey also has demanded Saudi Arabia extradite those 18 suspects to be tried
there for Khashoggi’s killing. Turkish security officials have kept up a slow
leak of videos, photographs and morbid details surrounding Khashoggi’s slaying
to pressure the kingdom, as the 2 U.S.-allied countries vie for influence over
the wider Mideast.
Khashoggi, 59, entered the consulate Oct. 2 as his fiancee waited outside.
Unbeknownst to him, a team of Saudi officials had flown in before his arrival
and laid in wait for him.
Saudi Arabia denied for weeks that Khashoggi had been killed but later changed
its story and ultimately acknowledged the brutal slaying. King Salman ordered
the restructuring of the country’s intelligence service, but has so far
shielded Prince Mohammed, his 33-year-old son who is next in line to the throne
in the oil giant kingdom.
(source: Associated Press)
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