The Suffragette

  As Mr. Asquith passed from the House of Commons to Downing Street in his motor-car he was hooted by the crowd. He arrived home to find his windows broken, for Mrs. Leigh and Mrs. New had driven swiftly past the guardian policemen at the entrance to the street in a taxicab and had each thrown two small stones through two of the lower windows of Number 10 before an arm of the Law had been stretched out to drag them away to Canon Row. Meanwhile Miss Mary Phillips had endeavoured to dash into the House of Commons by way of Palace Yard in the midst of a little company of Parliamentary waitresses but half way across the Yard had been seized and dragged back. Miss Lena Lambert had chartered a little rowing boat and had set off in the darkness to reach the House from the river side. Crowds of Members were lounging on the lighted terrace that hot summer’s night when she and her little craft appeared out of the darkness, to urge them to determine that the simple measure of justice, which was being so hardly fought for, should be carried into law. But not many words had she spoken, when the police boats swooped down on her and she was towed away, lest she should irritate and annoy the people’s representatives by telling them of the battle whose dull roar nothing could shut out.

  So the night wore on and that weary fight continued. Not until twelve o’clock did the police at last succeed in clearing the streets, and it was then found that twenty-nine women had been arrested.

  Next morning twenty-seven of the women were brought up at Westminster Police Court before the Magistrate, Mr. Francis, and were charged with obstructing the police in the execution of their duty. With the usual callous haste their trial was hurried through. The magistrate had always had all the political rights that he cared to use and would not trouble to imagine what it is like to be without them. He testily brushed aside the defence of the women that the Government had driven them to adopt these methods of obtaining the franchise and that Mr. Asquith by his ignoring of the Great Hyde Park Demonstration had taught them once and for all the uselessness of peaceful propaganda. The sentences ranged from one to three months’ imprisonment in the second division. Mrs. Leigh and Miss New were dealt with separately at Bow Street but, as this was not generally expected, very few people were present. In the dimly lighted Court, with the magistrate in his high backed chair regarding them sternly from deep cavernous eyes, the two little women in the great dock with its heavy iron railings looked strangely forlorn. What dreadful sentence, we wondered, was in store for these, the first of the Suffragettes to deliberately throw stones! Mr. Muskett in prosecuting them for doing wilful damage to the value of ten shillings at the Prime Minister’s residence, spoke of them with extreme harshness, urging that they should be sent to prison without the option of a fine. Though the Magistrate rebuked the women for the methods they had adopted, we felt that he was impressed by their demeanour and that he was loth to sentence them. He ordered that they should go to prison for two months in the third division without the option of a fine. The sentence was heavy enough, but lighter than we had feared in view of the fact that many of the other women were to remain in prison for three months.

  Christabel Pankhurst inviting the public to “rush” the House of Commons at a meeting in Trafalgar Square, Sunday, October llth, 1908

  When the House of Commons met on the same afternoon, several members of every party in the House asked, as they had done on previous occasions, that the women should be treated as political offenders. As before, however, Mr. Gladstone sheltered himself behind the statement, which nobody believed, that the Magistrate was alone responsible for placing the women in the second and third divisions and that he himself had no power to interfere.

  On the morning after the “raid” the newspapers had mostly contented themselves with rebuking the women for what they had done, but in a few days there came a reaction of feeling which was accelerated both by the harshness of the sentences imposed and by Mr. Gladstone’s refusal to mitigate the rigours of the prison treatment.

  The country was now overwhelmed by one of those terribly oppressive heat waves which come upon us suddenly from time to time and are borne with such difficulty in our usually temperate climate, and there gradually leaked out from Holloway accounts of the Suffragist women fainting in the exercise yards 2 and being seized with illness in their cells. There happened to be some cases of measles in the prison hospital, and Miss Elsie Howey, having contracted the disease there, was exceedingly ill for many weeks.

  All these things combined to focus public attention upon the harsh treatment of the Suffragette prisoners. On July 10th the Manchester Guardian in a leading Article said:

  It demands considerable obtuseness to believe, as some persons apparently do, that close confinement in the heat of Summer or the cold of Winter within a solitary and unwholesome cell, deprival of exercise for twenty-three hours out of the twenty-four, subjection to menial authority, ignorance of the welfare of one’s friends, the performing of dull and alien tasks, deprivation of writing materials, partial suffocation and the wearing of ugly, ill-fitting clothing that has already been worn by the vilest criminals, are for delicate and sensitive women the elements of a comedy. They compose a great and terrible torture…. Because they are suffering for an idea their stringent imprisonment is indefensible. It violates the public conscience and the law and the courts cannot wage war on the public conscience without forfeiting respect and authority.

  Mrs. Pankhurst and Christabel hiding from the police in the roof garden at Clement’s Inn, October 12th, 1908

  * * *

  1 Other suffrage societies soon afterwards also adopted colours. The Women’s Freedom League chose yellow, white and green, and the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies red, white and green.

  2 The efforts of Dr. Mary Gordon (the first lady Inspector of Prisons, who had been appointed during the previous April, admittedly owing to the publicity given to the condition of women in prison by the Suffragettes) now secured that when exercising in the future the women should be provided with cotton sunbonnets. By her advice the prisoners were also supplied with notebooks and pencils, but the latter privilege was afterwards withdrawn. Eventually she succeeded in abolishing the unsanitary wooden spoon — at any rate, for Suffragette use.

  CHAPTER XIV

  JULY TO OCTOBER, 1908

  GREAT DEMONSTRATIONS IN THE PROVINCES MR. LLOYD GEORGE ACCUSES WOMEN OF BEING PAID TO INTERRUPT HIM. ARREST OF THE THREE LEADERS AND THE FIFTH WOMEN’S PARLIAMENT.

  MEANWHILE, in spite of the fact that the Union had thought it necessary to again resort to militant tactics the campaign of great provincial demonstrations was proceeded with, and included gatherings of 100,000 people in Shipley Glen, Bradford, on May 31st, 15,000 at Heaton Park, Manchester, on July 19th, of 100,000 on Woodhouse Moor, Leeds, on July 26th, of many thousands, also, on the Durdham Downs Clifton, near Bristol, on September 19th, in Nottingham Forest, on July 18th, at Huddersfield, on September 27th, at Rawtenstall, on September 3rd, and in the Market Square Leicester on July 30th.

  During these months, by-elections had been fought in Pembrokeshire, Haggerston and Newcastle. At the first of these the Liberal majority was reduced. At the second a Liberal majority of 1,401 was turned to a Conservative majority of 1,143. At Newcastle, the Suffragettes swept all before them, and, when Mrs. Pankhurst announced to a great meeting on the Town Moor that five of the released prisoners were shortly to arrive, an immense procession was formed to do them honour, and the railway authorities placed the entrance usually reserved for Royalty at the disposal of the Suffragettes. Almost the whole population turned out to cheer the women. There seemed no doubt the Government nominee would be defeated, and so it proved, for a Liberal majority of no fewer than 6,481 votes was turned into a majority of 2,143 for the Conservatives.

  After the poll, Mr. Renwick, the successful candidate said: “I must express admiration for those who have addressed meetings on behalf of Women’s Suffrage. They have taught us a lesson as to how to speak and conduct a campaign. I am sure we all wish that they may realise
their hopes.” The defeated Liberal candidate also expressed the hope that the women would be voting at the next election.

  Meanwhile, at almost every meeting addressed by a Cabinet Minister throughout the length and breadth of the land, the Suffragettes had been in evidence, and when they had been unable to secure admission to the halls, they had held meetings outside.

  At some of Mr. Lloyd George’s meetings the women hecklers were treated with special brutality, and this was certainly increased by the exclamations of the Cabinet Minister on the platform. He called his interrupters “sorry specimens of womanhood,” and added, “I think a gag ought to be tried.” So calculated to aggravate the already savage behaviour of the stewards were his remarks, that quite a storm of protest was raised and Mr. Lloyd George found it necessary to write to the Times, saying:

  Owing to the constant interruptions to which I was subjected, it was doubtless difficult for me to make myself clearly and fully understood, and the difficulty which I found in speaking was no doubt shared by the Press in reporting. Under these circumstances I am not surprised that some misunderstanding may have arisen, and I appeal to the courtesy of your columns to remove it.

  Nevertheless, when he spoke at Swansea, his remarks were even more unguarded, and he urged on the stewards with such cries as, “By and by we shall have to order sacks for them, and the first to interrupt shall disappear,” and “fling them ruthlessly out.” At that there were shouts of laughter from Liberals on the platform mingled with cries of “frog march them !” Then he taunted the women. “I wonder how much she has been paid for coming here,” he called as one was being dragged away. His supporters responded with cheers and shouts of “Tory money,” and he added “I am sorry to say this business is becoming a profession.”

  On hearing of this remark, Mrs. Pethick Lawrence wrote to Mr. Lloyd George as Treasurer of the Women’s Social and Political Union to protest against his suggestion that the women who interrupted Cabinet Ministers did so as a “profession.” In doing so she forwarded him a copy of our Annual Report. He replied by repeating his insinuations and calling attention to the fact that the Report showed considerable sums of money to have been dispensed in “salaries,” “travelling expenses,” and “special board and lodging.” Mrs. Lawrence then stated that whilst, like every other political organisation, the Women’s Social and Political Union had its paid staff and organisers and that whilst these organisers were occasionally present at Cabinet Ministers’ meetings, the protests were almost entirely made by members of the Union who gave their time and work freely. Thus, of the thirty women who had interrupted Mr. George at the Queen’s Hall on July 28th and had been ejected, twenty-nine had never at any time been in receipt of any salary from the Union, and of the five women who had taken part in the protest made at Swansea, four had never been in receipt of any salary from the Union and the fifth was not receiving any salary at the time.

  The eyes of all Suffragettes were now fixed upon the opening of Parliament for the autumn session, which was to take place on October 12th. The Prime Minister was again asked that facilities should be given for the House of Commons to proceed with the Women’s Enfranchisement Bill, but he again refused and the W. S. P. U. then determined that a fifth Parliament of Women must be called together on October 13th, and that a deputation from it must again seek an interview with the Prime Minister. It was thought desirable that, as on the last occasion, the general public should be present, both that they might see what actually happened between the women and the authorities, and also that it might be shown to the Government that many thousands of men and women were prepared to support the Suffragettes and to answer to their call. Knowing well the difficulty of bringing anything prominently before the public in these modern days of crowded interests except with the aid of the advertisement afforded by notices in the Press, and knowing also that in this epoch of Press sensationalism that nothing, even if it be as serious as a struggle between life and death, is reported except when it is new, the Committee of the Union cast about in their minds for some racy and attractive means of drawing public attention to the forthcoming deputation. At last the phrase, “Help the Suffragettes to rush the House of Commons” was hit upon, because of its double suggestion and echo of the oft heard but almost always ridiculously unfounded complaint that legislation is being “rushed” through our too talkative and dilatory Parliament. The words were at once embodied in a handbill of which the accompanying illustration is a facsimile.

  Meanwhile another body of agitators who had become impatient with the Government’s treatment of their own particular question, were preparing to take similar steps. Even in the early summer, there had been signs that the forthcoming winter was to be one of exceptional hardship for the working classes, and the Labour Members of Parliament had then begun to urge upon the President of the Local Government Board the need for making extensive preparations for helping the great numbers of persons whom they foresaw would fall out of employment. The distress that had been foreshadowed was now upon the country, a feeling of general discontent prevailed, and rumours of all sorts of wild doings were beginning to spread. Bodies of unemployed came marching up to London from the provincial towns and held meetings on the Embankment and Tower Hill at which it was announced that there was to be a great gathering of the unemployed in Parliament Square on Monday, October 12th, and that an attempt was then to be made to see the Prime Minister, the President of the Local Government Board and the President of the Board of Trade. On Sunday, October 4th, a meeting for the unemployed was held under the auspices of the Social Democratic Federation in Trafalgar Square, and some very inflammatory speeches were delivered.1 The words of Mr. Will Thorne, M.P. for West Ham, were milder than those of some others. In the course of his remarks he said:

  Next Tuesday the Suffragettes admit that they are going to “rush” the House. There is nothing there. If you want to “rush” anything, you rush where there is something to be rushed; not the House. I say that if you are in earnest, the first thing that you ought to do is to rush the bakers’ shops. You ought to rush every bally bakers’ shop in London rather than starve. I suppose it means that a few of you will get locked up. You would be better off in prison.

  He added that until the unemployed struck “the fear of man” into the hearts of the Government, the Government would do nothing for them. After the unemployed meeting was over, there was some disorder in the neighbourhood of Charing Cross and two or three men were arrested.

  On Sunday, October 11th, the Women’s Social and Political Union held a meeting in Trafalgar Square at which Mrs. Pankhurst, Christabel Pankhurst, and Mrs. Drummond spoke from the plinth of the Nelson column, whilst the police who were present in great numbers, took notes of all that was said.

  On Monday, October 12th, came the day of the unemployed demonstration, but, though much had been feared and expected of it, little happened. Small groups of unemployed began to arrive in the Square at an early hour, but a pacificatory attitude was adopted by the authorities and though the police kept the crowd moving In the thoroughfares they did not prevent the assemblage of a number of people in the centre of the green in front of Westminster Abbey. Many of the men were allowed to enter the House, where Mr. John Burns assured them that within a few days the Prime Minister would make a pronouncement in the House of Commons pledging the Government to provide some measure of relief.

  During the week that had passed, the last before their demonstration, the Suffragettes had been working strenuously. The “rush” hand-bills had been circulated broadcast, a “Votes for Women” kite had floated constantly over the House of Commons, and a steam launch, decorated with banners and posters announcing the deputation had steamed up and down the river. Everything had gone on without let or hindrance and new recruits, anxious to take part in the demonstration had been eagerly presenting themselves. Yet from day to day there grew the knowledge that the authorities were lying in wait to take some sudden step against the Union and the women began to
notice that the police were shadowing all the prominent members of the Committee and were constantly hanging about the offices at Clement’s Inn. The blow came in the shape of the following document, a copy of which was served upon Mrs. Pankhurst, Mrs. Drummond, and Christabel Pankhurst about mid-day on Monday, October 12th:

  Information has been laid this day by the Commissioner of Police for that you, in the month of October, in the year 1908, were guilty of conduct likely to provoke a breach of the peace by initiating and causing to be initiated, by publishing and causing to be published, a certain handbill, calling upon and inciting the public to do a certain wrongful and illegal act, viz., to rush the House of Commons at 7:30 P. M. on October 13th inst.

  You are therefore hereby summoned to appear before the Court of Summary Jurisdiction now sitting at the Bow Street Police Station on Monday, October 12th, at the hour of 3:30, to answer to the said information and to shew cause why you and each of you shall not be ordered to find sureties of good behaviour.

  (Signed) H. CURTIS BENNETT.

  It was felt that the summons had been issued to withdraw public attention from the deputation to Mr. Asquith which was to go from the Caxton Hall next evening. Therefore it was decided to disregard it for the present, but at the crowded At Home in the Queen’s Hall that afternoon the members of the Union were informed that it had been received. The devotion and loyalty to leaders, always so strong in the Union, was now at fever heat. Numbers of constables were posted at the doors, official police reporters were present and it was momentarily expected that the police would force their way on to the platform and arrest the three. The excitement culminated when someone said that a police inspector was entering the building. Then hundreds of women leapt to their feet and cried out that the officers should not be allowed to enter and that they would never let them take their leaders. But this proved to be a false alarm, for it was only a messenger to say that the summonses had been adjourned until the following morning. Mrs. Pankhurst, Christabel and Mrs. Drummond decided not to give themselves up till evening and they accordingly sent the following note to the Court: