The Suffragette

  Then she asked whether the crowd in Trafalgar Square was a disorderly one. He admitted that it was not, but at the question “are you aware that any member of the Government was there?” he looked round at the Magistrate cautiously and said, “I do not know that I should answer that.” “You can say yes or no,” said Mr. Curtis Bennett, and when the query was repeated the reply came, “I saw one there.” “Was it Mr. Lloyd George?” said Miss Pankhurst with a smile, and at this there was laughter in court, and even the Magistrate plainly showed amusement. Mr. Wells flushed redder still and remained silent. She next questioned the Superintendent as to the nature of the speeches in Trafalgar Square and the exact meaning of the word “rush,” but he frequently took refuge in silence, and refused to be drawn. It was plain that Mr. Wells was not accustomed to being cross-examined by a prisoner in the dock and that he did not at all like it. Just as he began to hope that it was nearly over, she suddenly changed the subject, and asked him whether he had been present when Mr. John Burns had made the famous speech which led to his arrest. “I was not,” he answered, and she asked, “Are you aware that the words he used at that time were very much more calculated to lead to destruction and damage to property than anything that we have said?” “I am not aware of it,” said Mr. Wells looking appealingly across to Mr. Muskett. “You are aware however that John Burns is a member of the present Government and is responsible jointly with his colleagues, for the action which has been taken against us?” “Yes,” he answered, almost without thinking. “You are aware of that, you are aware that the law-breaker is now sitting in judgment upon those who have done far less than he did himself?” she said, pressing home her advantage. “You are aware of that?” she repeated after a pause. But there was no reply.

  Next she asked whether the Superintendent had heard the Trafalgar Square speech of Mr. Will Thorne, M.P. in which he had advised the people to rush the bakers’ shops? Mr. Wells felt on safer ground now, for this did not concern a Cabinet Minister. “I did not hear it,” he ventured to answer, “but it was reported to me.” “Well, does it occur to you that his language was far more dangerous to the public peace than the language that we have used?” “I am not complaining of your language,” he again answered doggedly, “I am complaining of the bills.” “Well, the language that was used on the bills, he spoke, he used the word ‘rush,’ moreover he incited people to riot and violence,” she urged. “Does it occur to you that his action is more reprehensible than ours?” “It occurs to me,” said Mr. Wells sulkily, “that he might be prosecuted the same as you are.” “You are not aware whether proceedings will be taken?” she asked with an air of pleased interest — but Mr. Curtis Bennett interposed to say that that question could not be allowed. Then she asked the Superintendent whether he knew that Mr. Gladstone had stated in the House of Commons that the proceedings against herself and her colleagues had not been instituted by the Government, but by the police. He tried to evade her, saying, “You have kept me so busily engaged that I have not had time to look at the papers this morning,” but before he left the box he had virtually admitted that, in spite of Mr. Gladstone’s denial, the Government was responsible for the prosecution.

  The next witness was our old friend, Inspector Jarvis with whom we had had negotiations in all sorts of matters connected both with our peaceful and militant propaganda ever since our campaign in London had been started. He is a tall thin man with a pale, thoughtful face and is not at all like the typical police officer. As a rule he has the most kindly and courteous manners, but to-day he seemed thoroughly ill-tempered and refused to look directly at any of us. He was called upon by Mr. Muskett to read the notes which he had taken of Christabel’s speech at the Sunday meeting in Trafalgar Square and he did so in halting and expressionless tones:

  I wish you all to be there on the evening of the 13th and I hope that this will be the end of this movement. On June 30th we succeeded in driving Mr. Asquith underground; he is afraid of us and so are the Government. Years ago John Bright told the people that it was only by lining the streets from Charing Cross to Westminster that they could impress the Government. Well, we are only taking a leaf out of his book. We want you to help the women to rush their way into the House of Commons. You won’t get locked up because you have the vote. If you are afraid, we will take the lead, and you will follow us. We know we shall win because we are in the right.

  Then, just as a child at school who does not understand the words, he read an extract also from Mrs. Pankhurst’s speech:

  On Tuesday evening at Caxton Hall we shall ask those who support the women to come to Parliament Square. There will be a deputation of women who have no right in the House of Commons to a seat1 there such as men have. The Government — does not know — its own mind — it — changes — so, but we do know — that we want the vote — and mean to have it. When the people in Parliament Square —

  But Mr. Muskett interrupted, he had heard enough. He went on to ask if it were not a fact that, on Monday morning, Inspector Jarvis had himself served a summons upon the defendants to appear in court on the afternoon of the same day and on the Inspector assenting, he said, “I want to know about this question as to whether they promised to attend here or not.” Inspector Jarvis hesitated, “Well, Miss Christabel,” he began, “I saw her alone, and she said, ‘We are not afraid, we shall be there.’” “Then,” said Mr. Muskett, “I believe they were served with a summons to appear on the following morning at eleven o’clock.” “Yes.” “And as they did not put in an appearance then, a warrant was issued?” “Yes.” “And you had to wait there for them until they surrendered to you?” Again the Inspector assented, looking very much aggrieved.

  Christabel Pankhurst began her cross-examination by closely questioning Mr. Jarvis on this very point and soon drew from him the admission that no definite promise had been made. As she was speaking to him his face cleared visibly and he generously owned that he had been mistaken. Similar evidence from a third Inspector closed the case for the prosecution.

  Christabel then applied for an adjournment and the Magistrate agreed to allow the case to stand over for a week. The three prisoners being released on bail for the time being.

  As soon as this had been decided Mr. Curtis Bennett said that he would deal with the cases of the women who had been arrested in Trafalgar Square, and seven of these were soon ordered to undergo from one to two months’ imprisonment in default of being bound over for twelve months. As each woman was asked if she had anything to say for herself, she replied, “I demand a trial by jury.” This seemed to annoy Mr. Curtis Bennett considerably and he became more and more irate until the fifth woman had spoken. Then he laughed and said, “I see this has evidently been arranged beforehand.” It was unfortunate for the fourth woman that he had not recovered his temper earlier for, though a first offender arrested for doing practically nothing, she received a sentence of two months’ imprisonment, whilst one month only was served out to others of the same class. Mrs. Leigh, as this was the third time that she had been charged, received a sentence of three months. Thirteen of the Suffragettes pleaded that they wished to obtain legal advice, and were remanded for a week, at the end of which time milder methods obtained, for their sentences ranged merely from three weeks to one month.

  Next day, Thursday, October 15th, a summons was issued against Mr. Will Thorne, M.P. for inciting the unemployed to rush the bakers’ shops, and when his case came up on the 21st, he expressed the belief that no summons would have been issued against him but for the remarks made by Christabel Pankhurst during the Suffragette trial. He declared that in speaking as he had done his object had been to persuade the unemployed not to take part in the Women’s Demonstration in Parliament Square, because he felt sure that they would get into trouble if they did so, and urged that his speech had been taken too literally. Mr. Curtis Bennett, however, ordered him to be bound over in his own recognisances of £200 and two sureties of £100 each to be of good behaviour for twelve months or in def
ault to go to prison for six months. Mr. Thorne agreed to be bound over.

  On Wednesday, October 21st, the trial of the Suffragette leaders again came on and, whilst the Court was just as crowded, the Press seats were even fuller than before. Mr. Curtis Bennett seemed more than ever dignified and magisterial. Everyone waited with impatience and presently there was a stir in the court, and, with much ceremony, some of the officers opened the door by which the prisoners usually enter and ushered in a group of gentlemen, who seated themselves in the pew-like benches reserved for counsel and distinguished persons. Then, preceded by a stout, black-bearded gaoler, and with three or four police on either side of them, the three Suffragettes made their way into the dock. As soon as they had seated themselves, Mr. Muskett rose and said in his usual rather peevish and very indistinct tones that the case for the Prosecution had been concluded on the previous Wednesday.

  After a short preliminary argument as to legal forms between Christabel and the Magistrate and a pledge that she should be allowed to submit her objections later, there was a slight scuffling in those important side benches, the pew doors were opened, two of the gentlemen who had accompanied him stepped aside and Mr. Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Exchequer, came forward and passed across the court into the witness box.

  Seen for the first time, he is totally unlike what one has been led to expect. Instead of the romantic-looking Welsh bard, with black and very curly hair, portrayed by the newspaper cartoons and drawings, there stood, cooped up in the little witness box, with its useless-looking wooden canopy, a plain little man, with a pale face, a long untidy moustache and hair which, though he wears it somewhat long, as it is in the pictures, has not the least suspicion of a curl but lies limp and scanty and is a dull dingy brown. At first he leant his arm on the front of the witness box and looked across at the three prisoners in the dock. He regarded Christabel Pankhurst curiously, as well he might, for, in her fresh white muslin dress whose one note of colour was the broad band of purple white and green stripes around her waist, with her soft brown hair uncovered, the little silky curls with just a hint of gold in them clustering about her neck, and, in this dingy place, her skin looking even more brilliantly white and those rose petal cheeks of hers even more exquisitely and vividly flushed with purest pink than usual, she was as bright and dainty as a newly opened flower, and with all her look of perfect health and vigour, appeared so slender and so delicately knit as to have little more of substance in her than a briar rose. But she was to triumph over her opponent in the witness box, not by her grace and freshness and by the outer aspect of her vivid glowing personality, but by her sparkling wit, her biting sarcasm and by the force and depth of her arguments. And these went home, not merely as they can be set down here in cold dull print, but far more truly, because they were enhanced by the everßhanging eloquence of gesture, voice, and facial expression — by a lift of the eyebrows, a turn of the head, a heightening of the lovely rose colour that flooded sometimes as far as the white throat and as quickly ebbed again, a sweep of the slender hand or a turn of that slight virile frame. All these, because so perfectly they echoed and expressed her thoughts, could lend to even the baldest and tritest words, a fanciful humour, a delicate irony, or an inexorable force.

  As she rose to examine Mr. Lloyd George, she began quite formally, but with a cheerful and pleasant manner asking whether he had been present at the Trafalgar Square meetings on October 11th? and whether he had seen a copy of the bills which were being distributed? “Yes,” he replied, with just the least suspicion of a smile, “a young lady gave one to me the moment I arrived. It invited me to rush the House of Commons.” “How did you interpret the invitation conveyed to you as a member of the audience ?” she asked next with a brisk business-like air. “What did you think we wanted you to do?” He replied pompously, “I really should not like to place an interpretation upon the document. I do not think it is quite my function.” “Well, I am speaking to you as a member of the general public,” she urged, refusing to be put off. “Imagine you were not at the meeting at all, but were walking up the Strand, and someone gave you a copy of this Bill, and you read it—‘Help the Suffragettes to rush the House of Commons.’ And suppose you forgot you were a member of the Government and regarded yourself just as an ordinary person like myself — quite unofficial,” she added, smiling, and with a little quick shake of her shoulders. “What would you think you were called upon to do?” “Really, I should not like to be called upon to undertake so difficult a task as to interpret that document,” was the tart reply, but Christabel went on persuasively, “Now this word ‘rush,’ which seems to be at the bottom of it all, what does it mean? “She waited with parted lips and raised eyebrows for a reply. It came unwillingly. “I understood the invitation from Mrs. Pankhurst was to force an entrance to the House of Commons.” “No, no, I want you to keep your mind concentrated on the bill,” she corrected. “Let us forget what Mrs. Pankhurst said. What did the Bill say?” “I really forget what the Bill said,” he snapped out sharply. She repeated the phrase to him graciously—“Help the Suffragettes to rush the House of Commons.” “Yes, that is it,” he assented, and she said, “I want you to define the word ‘rush.’” “I cannot undertake to do that.” “You cannot?” she asked incredulously. “No, Miss Pankhurst, I cannot.” “Well,” she replied, I will suggest some definitions to you. “I find that in ‘Chambers’ English Dictionary’ one of the meanings of the word is ‘an eager demand.’ Now, what do you think of that?” “I cannot enter into competition with ‘Chambers’ Dictionary.’ I am prepared to accept it,” he said stolidly.

  Miss Christabel Pankhurst questioning Mr. Herbert Gladstone

  Mr. Lloyd George was beginning to turn his head away from her and to show every sign of unwillingness to continue answering. Her imperturbable good humour made the situation harder for him to bear. As Max Beerbohm in the Saturday Review said, “His Celtic fire burned very low; and the contrast between the buoyancy of the girl and the depression of the statesman was almost painful. Youth and an ideal, on the one hand, and on the other, middle age and no illusions left over.”

  But Christabel appeared not to notice his discomfiture: “‘Urgent pressure of business.’ That is another meaning. Now, if you were asked to help the Suffragettes to make an eager demand to the House of Commons that they should give votes to women, would you feel that we were calling upon you to do an illegal act?” “That is not for me to say.” Here Mr. Curtis Bennett interposed. “The witness is perfectly right. This is for me to say on the evidence. I have not interfered so far,” but Christabel went on unheedingly and continued gravely reading from her list of definitions. “There is another sense in which the word ‘rush’ is used and I think it will be of some interest to you. We use it in this connexion, to ‘rush’ Bills through Parliament.” Mr. Lloyd George smiled in spite of himself. “Yes, I think I have some experience of that!” he said. “‘On the rush’ we are told in another dictionary means ‘in a hurry.’ There is nothing unlawful in being in a hurry.” Mr. Lloyd George shook himself impatiently, and the Magistrate again interposed; this time with more severity. “I have already said you must address those remarks to me afterwards.” But quite impassively she held to her point and with her eyes upon the witness continued, “Did you understand you were asked to go in a hurry to the House of Commons to make this eager demand for enfranchisement? Was that the meaning which the Bill conveyed to you?

  “In spite of his remonstrances Mr. Curtis Bennett was evidently enjoying the scene, and his eyes twinkled as he listened to the quickly and pleasantly directed questions and to the slow, grudging replies. Mr. George kept glancing at him angrily, and again looking severe he said at last, “Miss Pankhurst, you must take my ruling, please.”

  At this she changed her tack a little, questioning Mr. Lloyd George as to the speeches he had heard in Trafalgar Square and the demeanour of the crowd and always making her inquiries with a polite air of expectation that valuable information wou
ld be forthcoming. When Mr. Lloyd George admitted that he had heard some part of Miss Pankhurst’s speech, Christabel gravely inquired whether her mother had threatened violence to any member of the Government. “She did not invite the audience to attack you in any way?” she asked. Then gradually, through his fear of being made to appear ridiculous, she brought him to admit that he had thought that, if the public responded to the invitation to “rush” the House of Commons, the consequences would not be formidable and that there had been no suggestion either that public or private property should be damaged or that any personal violence should be done.

  Then she suddenly asked, “There were no words used so likely to incite to violence as the advice you gave at Swansea, that the women should be ruthlessly flung out of your meeting?” This was unexpected. Mr. Lloyd George frowned and remained silent. Mr. Muskett stood up and appealed to the Magistrate who interposed as was expected of him. “This is quite irrelevant. That was a private meeting, and not of the same character,” he said reprovingly. Christabel shook her head. “It was a public meeting,” she insisted. The Magistrate waved his hand. “Well, private in a sense” “They are private now-a-days, that is quite true,” she said pointedly, and obviously referring to the fact that ticket meetings only were now addressed by Cabinet Ministers, all women with a few selected exceptions being rigidly excluded. Then she went on to question Mr. Lloyd George as to the reason for which the “rush” had been planned, but he obstinately refused to answer.

  Turning to the events during the so-called “rush” on October 13th, she elicited the fact that Mr. Lloyd George had taken his little six-year-old daughter with him to watch the scene. “She was very amused,” he said with a malicious air. “You thought it was quite safe for a child of those tender years to be amongst the crowd?” asked Christabel, and this time it was her turn to be a little severe. “I was not amongst the crowd,” he snapped, and later, as if anxious to justify himself, added, “You see, I only brought her from Downing Street to the House, and I think that was clear.” “The Prosecution asserts that a serious breach of the peace took place,” was her next question. “Do you agree with that statement?”