CHAPTER XXIII

OCTOBER, 1909, TO JANUARY, 1910

ARREST OF LADY CONSTANCE LYTTON AND OTHERS AT NEWCASTLE. SUFFRAGETTES ATTACKED AT ABERNETHY. HOSE PIPE PLAYED ON MISS DAVISON IN STRANGEWAYS GAOL, MANCHESTER. MR. ASQUITH AT THE ALBERT HALL.

Whilst our comrades were thus enduring agonies in prison, protest meetings were being held in all parts of the country. The _Daily News_ said of the people in our movement: "They are no longer men and women; they are a whirlwind."

During the first three days of forcible feeding £1,200 was collected. At a great demonstration in the Albert Hall on October 7th, a further £2,300 was subscribed, and the £50,000 campaign fund being complete, a fund of £100,000 was started. At this meeting a procession of women who had already gone through the hunger strike marched up to the platform carrying the purple, white and green tricoloured flags of the Union, and here Mrs. Pankhurst, who was on the eve of her departure for America, decorated them with medals in recognition of their services to the cause. The scene was one of the most tremendous enthusiasm; it was one which none of those present will ever forget.

On October 9th a great political pageant was held in Edinburgh, when a procession of women, led by Scotch pipers and Mrs. Drummond in her general's uniform, astride a prancing charger, marched through the streets, accompanied by a number of tableaux representing the figures of heroic women famous in Scottish history.

On October 4th, Lord Morley, as Chancellor of the Victoria University, visited Manchester to open the University's new chemical laboratory. Deeply moved by the sufferings of Mrs. Leigh and her comrades in Winson Green Gaol, Miss Rona Robinson, M.Sc., and Miss Dora Marsden, B.A., both graduates of the University, and the former a subscriber also to the new laboratory, attended in their academic robes, and, with Miss Mary Gawthorpe, advanced down the central aisle of the Whitworth Hall of the University, just as Lord Morley was about to speak. Each one raising a hand in appeal, they said in concert: "My Lord, our women are in prison."

The rowdiness of the young men students of our British universities is time-honoured; their almost deafening shouts and yells and practical jokes, always in evidence at functions such as this, are invariably received with amused tolerance by the authorities. Mr. Asquith himself, when addressing the students of the University of which he is Chancellor, did not disdain to wait with a smile until their play was done before he could address them. Nevertheless the earnest, quietly-spoken words of these three young women were scarcely uttered when they were pounced upon by a number of strange men, who dragged them out of the Hall, and as soon as they were lost to sight by the audience, fell to striking, pummelling, and pinching them, as they pushed them into the street. The passers-by rushed up to know what had happened, and at once the police ordered the three women to move on. They replied that they would not leave until their graduates' caps and other belongings, which had been torn from them, were restored, and until the names of the men who had ejected them were given. Thereupon, without further argument, the police seized them and dragged them to the police station, where they were accused of disorderly conduct and abusive language, in Oxford Street. These ridiculous charges could not be substantiated and were afterwards withdrawn by the Chief Constable of Manchester and the Vice Chancellor of the University.

Such women as Mrs. Baines and Mrs. Leigh, both capable of the fieriest zeal and the most reckless heroism, spurred on by stern first-hand knowledge of the crushing handicaps with which the woman wage-earner has to contend, and the terrible disabilities which are rivetted upon her, had found it not difficult to become rebels. The torture of women in prison was now making it easy for gentler and happier spirits to cast aside also the mere going on deputations and asking of questions and, whilst doing hurt to none, yet by symbolic acts to shadow forth the violence that coercion always breeds.

On October 9th Mr. Lloyd George was to speak at Newcastle and the town was prepared as though for a revolution. Police and detectives were to be seen in hundreds and great barriers were erected across the streets. The night before the meeting twelve women met quietly together to lay their plans for opposing these tremendous forces. Amongst them was Lady Constance Lytton, who had already served one imprisonment for the cause in the previous February, and who, as daughter and sister of an English peer, wished to place herself side by side with Mrs. Leigh, the working woman who was being tortured in Birmingham,--to do what she had done, prepared to suffer the same penalty. Mrs. J. E. M. Brailsford, who had joined the Women's Social & Political Union but a few weeks before, was another who had come forward to bear her share in this fight. (It was Mrs. Brailsford's husband who with Mr. Nevinson had recently thrown up his post as leader writer to the _Daily News_, because of his sympathy with the Suffragettes). Amongst these women were also two hospital nurses, whilst two of the others, Miss Kathleen Brown and Miss Dorothy Shallard, had already won their way out of prison through the hunger strike.

Next night, whilst vast throngs of people lined the streets and the police were massed in their thousands to guard from them the Chancellor of the Exchequer, "the son of the people," as he called himself, the twelve women quietly proceeded to do their deeds. It was rumoured that Mr. Lloyd George was to stay with Sir Walter Runciman, and, seeing the latter gentleman's motor car driving through the streets, Lady Constance Lytton threw a stone at it, carefully aiming at the radiator in order that, without injuring anyone, she might strike the car. Miss Dorothy Pethick and Miss Kitty Marion entered the General Post Office and, having carefully selected a window in the neighbourhood of which there was no one to be hurt, they went out and cast their stones through it with a cry of "Votes for Women." A number of other women were also arrested for similar acts. Mrs. Brailsford walked quietly up to one of the police barriers and stood resting an innocent-looking bouquet of chrysanthemums upon it. Suddenly the flowers fell to the ground disclosing an axe which she raised and let fall with one dull thud on the wooden bar. It was a symbolic act of revolution, and, like her comrades, she was dragged away by the police. By direct order of the Home Office bail was refused and eight of the Suffragettes were kept in the police court cells from Saturday until Monday, without an opportunity of undressing, without a mattress, and with nothing but a rug in which to wrap themselves at night.

Whilst the women who had thus been lodged in prison had been making their protest outside Mr. Lloyd George's meeting, there were men who were speaking for them within. As the Chancellor of the Exchequer was running through the list of taxes in the Budget, a man complained that "there was no tax on stomach pumps." The whole house rose at that and the man was violently ejected. Many others followed his example. Mr. Lloyd George taunted them by saying: "_There are many ways of earning a living, and I think this is the most objectionable of them!_" and by asking: "Are there any more of _these hirelings_?" Evidently he thought that there were no men disinterested enough to support the cause of women unless they received pay for it.[42]

On Monday, whilst the other women received sentences varying from fourteen days to one month's hard labour, Lady Constance Lytton and Mrs. Brailsford were ordered to be bound over to be of good behaviour, and on refusing were sent to prison in the second division for one month. The authorities were evidently very loath to convict these two ladies, one of them because of her rank, and the other because of her own and her husband's association with the Liberal party, but both were determined to stand by their comrades and steadfastly refused to express any regret for what they had done.

Their hope that their courageous action might save Mrs. Leigh and the other Birmingham prisoners from further suffering proved to be vain, and on Wednesday, October 13th, Lady Constance Lytton and Mrs. Brailsford, both of whom had refused food, were released after having been imprisoned for no more than two and a half days. Mr. Gladstone asserted that in deciding to release them, he had not been in any way influenced by regard for their position, but that they had been turned out of prison on purely medical grounds. It was indeed true that Lady Constance was exceedingly fragile and delicate and that she suffered from a slight heart affection, but Mrs. Brailsford protested that she herself was perfectly well and strong.

The eight other women were all forcibly fed and all but two were retained in prison till the end of their sentence. In most cases the nasal tube was used; it always caused headache and sickness. The nostrils soon became terribly inflamed and every one of the women lost weight and suffered from great and growing weakness.

On Saturday, October 16th, Mr. Winston Churchill was to speak at an open-air gathering at Abernethy, some sixteen miles from Dundee. The W. S. P. U. had no intention of heckling him or creating any disturbance, for after much pressing and a lengthy correspondence he had agreed to fulfil a promise made to the Women's Freedom League in the previous January to receive a Woman's Suffrage deputation on the following Monday. Nevertheless the occasion was thought a suitable one for distributing Suffrage literature and for holding a meeting somewhere in the neighbourhood. Adela Pankhurst, Mrs. Archdale, the daughter of Russell, the founder of the great Liberal newspaper, "The Scotsman," Mrs. Frank Corbett, the sister-in-law of a Member of Parliament, and Miss C. Jolly accordingly decided to motor over there.

They started off on a crisp bright autumn day, the clouds high, the sun shining and the trees all turning gold, and the little frost sparkles gleaming on the good hard road. Everything began auspiciously but before long they were held up by a punctured tire. Owing to this delay they lost the opportunity of giving out leaflets to the people as they arrived, for the audience had already entered the big tent where the speaking was to take place when the Suffragettes drove up. Standing in the road were some thirty or forty men, all wearing the yellow rosettes of official Liberal stewards, and as the car slowed down, they rushed furiously towards it, shouting and tearing up sods from the road and pelting the women with them. One man pulled out a knife and began to cut the tires, whilst the others feverishly pulled the loose pieces off with their fingers. The Suffragettes tried to quiet them with a few words of explanation, but their only reply was to pull the hood of the motor over the women's heads and then to beat it and batter it until it was broken in several places. Then they tore at the women's clothes and tried to pull them out of the car, whilst the son of the gentleman in whose grounds the meeting was being held then drove up in another motor and threw a shower of pepper in the women's eyes. The shouts of the men reached the tent where Mr. Churchill was speaking, and numbers of people flocked out and watched the scene from over the hedge, but only two gentlemen had the courage to come to the aid of the women, and their efforts availed little against the large band of stewards. At last, fearing that his motor would be entirely wrecked, the driver put on full speed and drove away. The only excuse for the stewards who took part in this extraordinary occurrence is that many of them were intoxicated.

On Monday, as he had promised, Mr. Churchill received the deputation from the Women's Freedom League. He then entirely departed from what he had said during the elections both in Manchester and at Dundee itself. In Manchester, when asked what he would do to help to secure the enfranchisement of women he had said: "I will try my best as and when occasion offers." He had added that the women Suffragists had "now got behind them a great popular demand," and that their movement was assuming "the same character as Franchise movements have previously assumed." In Dundee he had said that Women's Suffrage would be "a real practical issue" at the next general election and that he thought that the next Parliament "ought to see" the gratification of the women's claim. Now that no election was in prospect he said: "Looking back over the last four years I am bound to say I think your cause has marched backwards." He further said that the mass of people still remained to be converted and that, so far as he could see, women's enfranchisement would not "figure either in the programme of any great political party" or "in the election address of any prominent man," and that, until militant tactics were discontinued, he himself would render no assistance to the cause. A more flagrant example of political dishonesty than that which these conflicting statements of Mr. Churchill's presented, it would be difficult to find and not merely the Suffragettes but the people of Dundee freely expressed their disapproval.

On Tuesday, Mr. Churchill was to speak in the Kinnaird Hall, and huge crowds then filled the streets and in spite of the tremendous force of police the barricades were stormed. Led by Mrs. Corbett, Miss Joachim, and Mrs. Archdale, they shouted "Votes for Women," and rushed again and again at the doors of the Hall. The three women who led the crowds were arrested but the storm still went on.

Adela Pankhurst and Miss C. Jolly, who had lain concealed there since the previous Sunday, had raised the cry, "Votes for Women," in a little dark room, the windows of which overlooked the large hall. After a tussle with the police and stewards, which lasted three quarters of an hour, they were arrested and with the three who had been taken in the street, were eventually sent to prison for ten days. They immediately commenced the hunger strike, and were set free on Sunday, 24th October, after having gone without food for five and a half days. Whilst they were in prison, huge crowds came to the gates every night to cheer them, and on the next night after their release the men of Dundee organised a meeting of protest, in the Kinnaird Hall.

Meanwhile, four Suffragettes were suffering the torture of forcible feeding in Strangeways Gaol, Manchester. They had been arrested in connection with a meeting held by Mr. Runciman at Radcliffe, and sentenced to one month's imprisonment, with hard labour, on October 21st. They had gone into prison on the Thursday, and had begun the hunger strike at once, and on Friday the doctors and wardresses came to feed them by force. Miss Emily Wilding Davison urged that the operation was illegal, but she was seized and forced down on her bed. "The scene which followed," she says, "will haunt me with its horror all my life and is almost indescribable." Each time it happened she felt she could not possibly live through it again. On Monday a wardress put her into an empty cell next door to her own, and there she found that instead of one plank bed there were two. She saw in a flash a way to escape the torture. She hastily pulled down the two bed boards, and laid them end to end upon the floor, one touching the door, the other the opposite wall, and, as the door opened inwards, she thus hoped to prevent anyone entering. A space of a foot or more, however, remained, but she jammed in her stool, her shoes, and her hairbrush, and sat down holding this wedge firm. Soon the wardress returned, unlocked the door, and pushed it sharply, but it would not move. Looking through the spy-hole she discovered the reason and called, "Open the door," but the prisoner would not budge. After some threats and coaxing the window of her cell was broken, the nozzle of a hose-pipe was poked through, and the water was turned full upon her. She clung to the bedboards with all her strength gasping for breath, until a voice called out quickly, "Stop, no more, no more." She sat there drenched and shivering, still crouching on the bedboards, the water six inches deep around her. After a time they decided to take the heavy iron door off its hinges, and, when this was done, a warder rushed in and seized her, saying, as he did so, "You ought to be horsewhipped for this." Now her clothes were torn off, she was wrapped in blankets, put into an invalid's chair, and rushed off to the hospital, there to be plunged into a hot bath and rubbed down, and then, still gasping and shivering miserably, she was put into bed between blankets with a hot bottle. At 6 P. M. on Thursday she was released.

Meanwhile, the whole country had heard of the incident and an outcry had been raised. A correspondent wrote that he had seen a hose-pipe played on drunken stokers at sea. They were Norwegian stokers, the officer would not have dared to do it had they been English, but the passengers had intervened at what they felt to be revolting and unjustifiable brutality. The thought of turning that fearful force of ice-cold water upon a woman already weak from several days of fasting, was horrible indeed to anyone who realised what it meant.

Mr. Gladstone himself admitted that the Visiting Committee who had ordered it were guilty of a grave error of judgment and ordered the discharge of Miss Davison; but later on he addressed a letter to the officials of Strangeways Gaol through the Prison Commissioners expressing his appreciation of the way in which the medical officers had carried out their duties and commending "the efficiency of the prison service, the carefulness and good sense shown by the staff," and "the tact, care, humanity and firmness" with which the problem of the Suffragette imprisonments had been "handled by all concerned."

The other Manchester prisoners were obliged to complete their sentences, being forcibly fed during the whole time.

At this point the Government had an opportunity of learning the view of the electorate as to their treatment of the women, for a by-election was now taking place in Bermondsey and the Suffragettes were, as usual, actively opposing the Government candidate. In order that every elector might understand as far as possible what forcible feeding really meant, a pictorial poster showing the operation was displayed throughout the constituency and models representing forcible feeding were shown at the W. S. P. U. committee rooms. A manifesto against the Government was also issued by nine representative men, including Mr. Brailsford, Mr. Nevinson and Dr. Hugh Fenton, which urged the electors "in the name of chivalry and humanity as well as in the interests of true Liberalism to see to it that whatever else may happen at this particular election the Government candidate is left at the bottom of the poll." The Suffragettes worked, if possible, more vigorously than ever, and after the first three days of their campaign, Liberal workers came to them in despair, saying: "Why have you come down to boss our election?" The Suffragettes never go to Liberal meetings at election times, but the Liberal speakers were constantly being heckled by the men and women of Bermondsey as to the forcible feeding of the Suffragettes. The Suffragettes themselves were greeted with cheers and words of encouragement wherever they went. "All the policemen in this constituency are going to vote for you," one of the constables said, and others testified that they preferred to keep order at the women's meetings than at any other because "they talked sense." In the result the Liberal candidate was defeated and the Liberal poll was reduced by more than 1,400 votes. The figures were:

Mr. Dumfries, Unionist 4,278 Mr. Spencer Leigh, Hugh, Liberal 3,291 Dr. Salter, Socialist 1,435 _____ Unionist majority 987

The figures at the last election had been:

George J. Cooper, Liberal 4,775 H. J. Cockayne Cust, Conservative 3,016 _____ Liberal majority 1,759

On polling day an unlooked-for, and to the Women's Social and Political Union, unwelcome incident occurred. The Women's Freedom League endeavoured to render the election void, because they objected to any election being held at which women might not vote. The W. S. P. U. were against this, because their policy was to prove that the electors were prepared to defeat the Government candidate in order to show their belief in Votes for Women. The attempt of the Freedom League members to render the election void was carried out in the following manner. Two members of the League, Mrs. Chapin and Miss Allison Neilans, each entered a separate polling booth with a glass test tube filled with a solution of ink and photographic chemicals which had been carefully prepared to destroy the ballot papers without any risk of injury to any person who might happen to touch it. In each case the woman concerned broke the test tube by striking it on top of the ballot box so that the black liquid might fall into the slot. When this was done by Mrs. Chapin a Mr. Thorley rushed forward, and some of the black liquid splashed into his eye. In Miss Neilans' case a man stretched out his hand and some of the liquid fell upon it. In both cases the men asked if the stuff would burn, and were told it would do no harm if it were washed off at once. Miss Neilans' own hands and gloves were soaked with the fluid, but she suffered no harm. Only five papers were touched by the fluid and none of these were indecipherable.

A great outcry was raised, however, for it was declared that Mr. Thorley would be blind for life. For some time he went out wearing a black shade over his eye, but when he was called upon unexpectedly by some members of the Women's Freedom League, he was found to be without the shade and his eye appeared perfectly normal. The cases hung over for some time and eventually, on November 24th, Mrs. Chapin was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for interfering with the ballot box and four months for a common assault upon Mr. Thorley, the sentences to run concurrently; whilst Miss Neilans was ordered three months' imprisonment. After a time it leaked out that the slight injury from which Mr. Thorley had suffered, had been caused, not by the liquid which Mrs. Chapin had thrown, but by some ammonia which he had used to counteract any after-effects. Two days after Miss Neilans' release Mrs. Chapin was granted the King's Pardon.

On October 30th Mrs. Leigh was suddenly released from Birmingham Gaol, in a very critical state, though two months out of the four to which she had been sentenced still remained to run. She was at once removed to a nursing home.

November 9th was Lord Mayor's Day, and, as usual, the Lord Mayor had invited the Cabinet Ministers to a banquet in the Guild Hall. Knowing this, Miss Alice Paul, an American citizen, and Miss Amelia Brown disguised themselves as charwomen, and, carrying buckets and brushes, entered the building with the other cleaners at nine o'clock in the morning. There they hid themselves and waited until the evening, when they took their stand in the gallery outside the Banqueting Hall. When Mr. Asquith was about to speak, Miss Brown, having carefully selected a pane of the stained glass window upon which there was no ornament, and which she thought might be easily replaced, stooped down, took off her shoe and smashed the chosen pane in order that her shout of "Votes for Women" might be heard by those below. Miss Alice Paul also took up the cry. Both women were arrested and afterwards sent to prison for one month's hard labour on refusing to pay fines of £5 and damages of £2 ten shillings each. They were both forcibly fed and as a result of this Miss Brown was attacked with severe gastritis.

Three days later, on November 13th, Mr. Winston Churchill visited Bristol to speak at the Colston Hall. Miss Theresa Garnet, the woman who had been twice through the hunger strike, and whom the Home Secretary had wrongfully accused of biting, resolved to humiliate Mr. Churchill, both as a member of the Government which preferred rather to imprison women than to enfranchise them and to torture them rather than to extend towards them the ordinary privileges of political prisoners; and also on his own account for his slippery and disingenuous statements in regard to the Votes for Women question.

She therefore met the train by which he was arriving from London and found him on the platform in the midst of a large force of detectives who formed a semi-circle around him. She rushed straight forward, and they either did not, or would not, see her coming, but the Cabinet Minister saw her, he paled and stood there as though petrified, only raising his arm to guard himself. She reached him and with a light riding switch, struck at him three times, saying, "Take that in the name of the insulted women of England." At that he grappled with her, wrested the switch from her hand, and put it in his pocket. Then she was seized and dragged away to prison.

She was charged with assaulting Mr. Churchill, but eventually this charge was withdrawn (presumably because Mr. Churchill knew that he would be subpœnaed as a witness) and, on being accused of having disturbed the peace, was sentenced to one month's imprisonment on refusing to be bound over.

Meanwhile 30,000 men and women had turned out to help the Suffragettes in their protest around the Colston Hall where Mr. Churchill was speaking, and during the evening four women were arrested, and afterwards punished with from two months' hard labour to fourteen days in the second division, whilst several men who had spoken up for them inside the Colston Hall were beaten unmercifully by the stewards. Forcible feeding was resorted to in Bristol Prison also, and handcuffs were used in some cases.

Meanwhile the supporters of the Liberal Government were adopting militant tactics on their own account. What was called "A League against the Lords" had been formed with the warmly expressed approval of many of the Liberal leaders, and, though the leaders had kept in the background, the members of the League had twice assembled in Parliament Square to hoot the peers as they drove by in their carriages, and had come into collision with the police.

At the same time the Liberal newspapers were openly commending the efforts of gangs of men who were going from meeting to meeting held by the Conservatives, and with shouts and violence were making it impossible for their political opponents to speak. Columns were devoted to describing the doings of what was called "The Voice" which persistently heckled Tariff Reformers and supporters of the House of Lords.

Mr. Winston Churchill was now arranging to hold a campaign of public meetings in Lancashire, and the W.S.P.U. publicly and openly appealed for funds to insure that protests and demonstrations should be made in connection with all his meetings. Thousands of pounds were, on the other hand, spent by the authorities to defeat the women's intentions. In Preston, in addition to many other precautions, seventy men were employed and £150 spent on barricading the windows and roof of the Hall where Mr. Churchill was to speak, and at Southport £250 was laid out on mounted police to protect the Empire Music Hall alone.

When the Southport meeting began Mr. Churchill looked ill at ease and turned about sharply from time to time as though expecting an interruption. But at last he seemed to gain confidence and was proceeding briskly with his remarks, when, suddenly, there floated down from the roof a soft voice, faint and reedy, and peering through one of the great porthole-like openings in the slope of the ceiling, was seen a strange little elfin form with wan childish face, broad brow and big grey eyes, looking like nothing real or earthly but a dream waif. But for the weary paleness of her, she might have been one of those dainty little child angels the old Italian painters loved to show peeping down from the tops of high clouds or nestling amongst the details of their stately architecture. It was Dora Marsden who with two other women had lain concealed on the roof since two o'clock in the small hours of the previous morning. So unexpected and pathetic was this little figure that leant further forward to repeat her message that the audience could not forbear to cheer her. They stood up, waving their hats and programmes, "looking delighted," as the loftily placed intruder herself observed. Mrs. Churchill smiled also and waved her hand and even Mr. Churchill, though this was probably because of his wife's presence, and of the general feeling of the audience, himself looked pleasantly up and said, "If some stewards will fetch those ladies after my speech is concluded, I shall be glad to answer any questions they may put to me."

But the stewards, who by this time had found the women, were not disposed to bring them into the hall. A hand was thrust over Dora Marsden's mouth and she and the others were roughly pulled back from their coign of vantage, pushed through a window, and sent rolling down the steep sloping roof. "Stop that, you fools," someone cried out, "you will all fall over the edge," but one of the stewards answered, "I do not care what happens." Fortunately two of the Suffragettes were caught in their perilous descent by the edge of a water trough whilst a policeman seized Dora Marsden by the ankle, telling her, "If I had not caught your foot, you would have gone to glory." Once safely on the ground the women were placed under arrest, but the case against them was eventually dismissed.

At Preston, Suffragettes dressed in shawls and clogs sallied forth at night and pasted forcible feeding posters on the street pillar boxes, the prison and other public buildings and the windows and doors of the Liberal Club, as a welcome to Mr. Churchill, and in connection with turbulent scenes which occurred whilst his meeting was in progress, four women were arrested. At every other town he visited the same kind of thing occurred. At Waterloo, there was one arrest, at Liverpool there were two, and one at Bolton and one at Crewe.

Meanwhile Mr. Harcourt had held a series of meetings in the Rossendale Valley. On December 1st the door and windows of the house in which he was staying were found to have been covered during the night with forcible feeding posters. The next evening three men were set to watch with large hose-pipes attached to the main, but somehow or other the connection was mysteriously cut and the windows were broken without their being aware of it by some person or persons unknown. Two women were arrested in connection with disturbances on the following Monday, and were sent to prison for one month and fourteen days respectively. They both adopted the hunger strike, and were both forcibly fed. Two women were arrested outside Sir Edward Grey's meeting at Leith on December 4th, 1909.

A general election was now announced and on December 10th Mr. Asquith was to speak at a great meeting in the Albert Hall and whilst the authorities were making every attempt to keep them out, the Suffragettes were, of course, making every attempt to get into the building. Some of them did succeed in concealing themselves inside, but were discovered. Jessie Kenney, who disguised herself as a telegraph boy and tried to get in while the meeting was in progress, was also detected and turned back, but three men sympathisers protested during the meeting. To these Mr. Asquith replied, "Nearly two years ago I declared on behalf of the present Government that in the event of our bringing in a Reform Bill we should make the question of Suffrage for Women an open one for the House of Commons to decide. My declaration survives the General Election and this Cause, so far as the Government is concerned, shall be no worse off in the new Parliament than it would have been in the old." Thus Mr. Asquith was cheerfully preparing for another general election without one word of regret or apology to those women who had been misled by his promise to introduce the Reform Bill before Parliament came to an end. That was almost the last of the old false promise.

Meanwhile Charlotte Marsh, who had gone into Winson Green Gaol with the first batch of prisoners to be forcibly fed, was still being detained there, whilst Mrs. Leigh and all the rest had been released. Those who went to visit her once at the expiration of each month were only allowed to look at her through a small square of perforated zinc. They could neither see her clearly nor hear distinctly what she said. Nevertheless they gathered that she was suffering greatly. Our hearts ached for that noble girl. Often there came before our eyes the picture of the tall, straight figure that had carried the colours of our Union before us in so many gay processions. We saw the fair, fresh face with its delicate regular Saxon features, those masses of bright golden hair, the head so proudly held, and the faint flicker of a shy smile that always came when one spoke to her; we heard the boyish ring in her voice, and realised again her earnestness and enthusiasm, and the unaffected gentleness of her address. There was always something about her that made many a woman think of some dear young brother. Her father called her "Charlie," and thought of her as his only boy amongst a family of girls.

It was expected that she would have been released on December 7th, but the Government who had held her in torment for so long were anxious to extort from her the very last ounce of their pound of flesh. They determined not to grant her the remission of one-sixth of the sentence usually allowed, but to withhold it as a punishment for her refusal to take food, and they did this though they knew that her father was dangerously ill and though her mother had appealed for her release on that ground a week before. There was no fine that could be laid down to buy her out, for she had been sentenced without that option, and so perforce she must wait the pleasure of the Government. On the 8th of December, it was known that Charlotte Marsh's father was dying and her family made another urgent appeal that she might be brought to him. But it was not until the 9th that the Home Secretary at last tardily let her go. She hurried at once to her home in Newcastle, so thin and worn with what she had suffered, that her sisters scarcely knew her as she came into the house, only to find that her father was unconscious and would never wake to know her any more.

FOOTNOTES:

[42] Mr. Lloyd George's baseless insinuation was of course indignantly and publicly repudiated by the men concerned.