My own story
support of the Conciliation Bill, the greatest that had, up to that
time, been made. It was a national, indeed an inter-national affair in
which all the suffrage groups took part, and its massed ranks were so
great that the procession required an hour and a half to pass a given
point. At the head marched six hundred and seventeen women, white clad
and holding long silver staves tipped with the broad arrow. These were
the women who had suffered imprisonment for the cause, and all along the
line of march they received a tribute of cheers from the public. The
immense Albert Hall, the largest hall in England, although it was packed
from orchestra to the highest gallery, was not large enough to hold all
the marchers. Amid great joy and enthusiasm Lord Lytton delivered a
stirring address in which he confidently predicted the speedy advance of
the bill. The women, he declared, had every reason to believe that their
enfranchisement was actually at hand.
It was true that the time for passing a suffrage bill was ripe. Not in
fifty years had the way been so clear, because the momentary absence of
ordinary legislation left the field open for an electoral reform bill.
Yet when the Prime Minister was asked in the House of Commons whether he
would give the members an early opportunity for discussion, the answer
was not encouraging. The Government, said Mr. Asquith, were prepared to
give time before the close of the session for full debate and division
on second reading, but they could not allow any further facilities. He
stated frankly that he personally did not want the bill to pass, but the
Government realised that the House of Commons ought to have an
opportunity, if that was their deliberate desire, for effectively
dealing with the whole question.
This cryptic utterance was taken by the majority of the suffragists, by
the press and by the public generally to mean that the Government were
preparing gracefully to yield to the undoubted desire of the House of
Commons to pass the bill. But the Women's Social and Political Union
were doubtful. Mr. Asquith's remark was ambiguous, and was capable of
being interpreted in several ways. It could mean that he was prepared to
accept the verdict of the majority and let the bill pass through all its
stages. That of course would be the only way to allow the House
opportunity effectively to deal with the whole question. On the other
hand Mr. Asquith might be intending to let the bill pass through its
debating stages and be afterwards smothered in committee. We feared
treachery, but in view of the announcement that the Government had set
apart July 11 and 12 for debate on the second reading, we preserved a
spirit of waiting calm. July 26th had been fixed as the day for the
adjournment of Parliament, and if the bill was voted on favourably on
the 12th there would be ample time to take it through its final stages.
When a bill passes its second reading it is normally sent upstairs to a
Grand Committee which sits while the House of Commons is transacting
other business, and thus the committee stage can proceed without special
facilities. The bill does not go back to the House until the report
stage is reached, at which time the third and last reading occurs. After
that the bill goes to the House of Lords. A week at most is all that is
required for this procedure. A bill may be referred to the Whole House,
and in this case it cannot be brought up for its committee stage unless
it is given special facilities. In our paper and in many public
speeches we urged that the members vote to send the bill to a Grand
Committee.
Some days before the bill reached its second reading it was rumoured
that Mr. Lloyd-George was going to speak against it, but we refused to
credit this. Unfair to women as Mr. Lloyd-George had shown himself in
various ways, he had consistently posed as a staunch friend of women's
suffrage, and we could not believe that he would turn against us at the
eleventh hour. Mr. Winston Churchill, whose speech to the women of
Dundee I quoted in a previous chapter, the promoters of the Bill also
counted upon, as it was known that he had more than once expressed
sympathy with its objects. But when the debates began we found both of
these ardent suffragists arrayed against the bill. Mr. Churchill, after
making a conventional anti-suffrage speech, in which he said that women
did not need the ballot, and that they really had no grievances,
attacked the Conciliation Bill because the class of women who would be
enfranchised under it did not suit him. Some women, he conceded, ought
to be enfranchised, and he thought the best plan would be to select
"some of the best women of all classes" on considerations of property,
education and earning capacity. These special franchises would be
carefully balanced, "so as not on the whole to give undue advantage to
the property vote against the wage earning vote." A more fantastic
proposal and one less likely to find favour in the House of Commons
could not possibly be imagined. Mr. Churchill's second objection to the
bill was that it was anti-democratic! It seemed to us that anything was
more democratic than his proposed "fancy" franchises.
Mr. Lloyd-George said that he agreed with everything Mr. Churchill had
said "both relevant and irrelevant." He made the amazing assertion that
the Conciliation Committee that had drafted the bill was a "committee of
women meeting outside the House." And that this committee said to the
House of Commons not only that they must vote for a women's suffrage
bill but "You must vote for the particular form upon which we agree, and
we will not even allow you to deliberate upon any other form."
Of course these statements were wholly false. The Conciliation Bill was
drafted by men, and it was introduced because the Government had refused
to bring in a party measure. The suffragists would have been only too
glad to have had the Government deliberate on a broader form of
suffrage. Because they refused to deliberate on any form, this private
bill was introduced.
This fact was brought forward in the course of Mr. Lloyd-George's
speech. It had been urged, said he, that this bill was better than none
at all, but why should that be the alternative? "What is the other?"
called out a member, but Mr. Lloyd-George dodged the question with a
careless "Well, I cannot say for the present."
Later on he said: "If the promoters of this bill say that they regard
the second reading merely as an affirmation of the principle of women's
suffrage, and if they promise that when they re-introduce the bill it
will be in a form which will enable the House of Commons to move any
amendment either for restriction or extension I shall be happy to vote
for this bill."
Mr. Philip Snowden, replying to this, said: "We will withdraw this bill
if the Right Honourable gentleman, on behalf of the Government, or the
Prime Minister himself will undertake to give to this House the
opportunity of discussing and carrying through its various stages
another form of franchise bill. If we cannot get that, then we shall
prosecute this bill."
The Government made no reply at all to this, and the debate proceeded.
Thirty-nine speeches were made, the Prime Minister showing plainly in
his speech that he intended to use all his power to prevent the bill
becoming law. He began by saying that a franchise measure ought never to
be sent to a Grand Committee, but to one of the Whole House. He said
also that his conditions, that the majority of women should show beyond
any doubt that they desired the franchise, and that the bill be
democratic in its terms, had not been complied with.
When the division was taken it was seen that the Conciliation Bill had
passed its second reading by a majority of 109, a larger majority than
the Government's far famed budget or the House of Lords Resolution had
received. In fact no measure during that Parliament had received so
great a majority--299 members voted for it as against 190 opposed. Then
the question arose as to which committee should deal with the bill. Mr.
Asquith had said that all franchise bills should go to a Committee of
the Whole House, so that in the division his words moved many sincere
friends of the bill to send it there. Others understood that this was a
mischievous course, but were afraid of incurring the anger of the Prime
Minister. Of course all the anti-suffragists voted the same way, and
thus the bill went to the Whole House.
Even then the bill could have been advanced to its final reading. The
House had time on their hands, as virtually all important legislative
work was halted because of the deadlock between the Lords and the
Commons. Following the death of the King a conference of leaders of the
Conservative and the Liberal Parties had been arranged to adjust the
matters at issue, and this conference had not yet reported. Hence
Parliament had little business on hand. The strongest possible pressure
was brought to bear upon the Government to give facilities to the
Conciliation Bill. A number of meetings were held in support of the
bill. The Men's Political Union for Women's Enfranchisement, the Men's
League for Women's Suffrage and the Conciliation Committee held a joint
meeting in Hyde Park. Some of the old school of suffragists held another
large meeting in Trafalgar Square. The Women's Social and Political
Union, on July 23rd, which was the anniversary of the day in 1867 on
which working men, agitating for their vote, had pulled down the Hyde
Park railings, held another enormous demonstration there. A space of
half a square mile was cleared, forty platforms erected, and two great
processions marched from east and west to the meeting. Many other
suffrage societies co-operated with us on this occasion. On the very
day of that meeting Mr. Asquith wrote to Lord Lytton refusing to allow
any more time for the bill during that session.
Those who still had faith that the Government could be induced to do
justice to women set their hopes on the autumn session of Parliament.
Resolutions urging the Government to give the bill facilities during the
autumn were sent, not only by the suffrage associations but from many
organisations of men. The Corporations of thirty-eight cities, including
Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Dublin and Cork, sent resolutions to
this effect. Cabinet Ministers were besieged with requests to receive
deputations of women, and since the country was on the verge of a
general election, and the Liberal Party wanted the services of women,
their requests could not altogether be ignored. Mr. Asquith, early in
October, received a deputation of women from his own constituency of
East Fife, but all he had to tell them was that the bill could not be
advanced that year. "What about next year?" They asked, and he replied
shortly: "Wait and see."
It had been exceedingly difficult, during these troublous days, to hold
all the members of the W. S. P. U. to the truce, and when it became
perfectly apparent that the Conciliation Bill was doomed, war was again
declared. At a great meeting held in Albert Hall on November 10th, I
myself threw down the gage of battle. I said, because I wanted the whole
matter to be clearly understood by the public as well as by our members:
"This is the last constitutional effort of the Women's Social and
Political Union to secure the passage of the bill into law. If the Bill,
in spite of our efforts, is killed by the Government, then first of all,
I have to say there is an end of the truce. If we are met by the
statement that there is no power to secure on the floor of the House of
Commons time for our measure, then our first step is to say, 'We take it
out of your hands, since you fail to help us, and we resume the
direction of the campaign ourselves.'"