My own story
clearly and briefly as I can to make it clear to you to-night that if it
is justifiable to fight for common ordinary equal justice, then women
have ample justification, nay, have greater justification, for
revolution and rebellion, than ever men have had in the whole history of
the human race. Now that is a big contention to make, but I am going to
prove it. You get the proof of the political injustice--"
As I finished the word "injustice," a steward uttered a warning shout,
there was a tramp of heavy feet, and a large body of police burst into
the hall, and rushed up to the platform, drawing their truncheons as
they ran. Headed by detectives from Scotland Yard, they surged in on all
sides, but as the foremost members attempted to storm the platform, they
were met by a fusillade of flower-pots, tables, chairs, and other
missiles. They seized the platform railing, in order to tear it down,
but they found that under the decorations barbed wires were concealed.
This gave them pause for a moment.
Meanwhile, more of the invading host came from other directions. The
bodyguard and members of the audience vigorously repelled the attack,
wielding clubs, batons, poles, planks, or anything they could seize,
while the police laid about right and left with their batons, their
violence being far the greater. Men and women were seen on all sides
with blood streaming down their faces, and there were cries for a
doctor. In the middle of the struggle, several revolver shots rang out,
and the woman who was firing the revolver--which I should explain was
loaded with blank cartridges only--was able to terrorise and keep at bay
a whole body of police.
I had been surrounded by members of the bodyguard, who hurried me
towards the stairs from the platform. The police, however, overtook us,
and in spite of the resistance of the bodyguard, they seized me and
dragged me down the narrow stair at the back of the hall. There a cab
was waiting. I was pushed violently into it, and thrown on the floor,
the seats being occupied by as many constables as could crowd inside.
The meeting was left in a state of tremendous turmoil, and the people of
Glasgow who were present expressed their sense of outrage at the
behavior of the police, who, acting under the Government's instructions,
had so disgraced the city. General Drummond, who was present on the
platform, took hold of the situation and delivered a rousing speech, in
which she exhorted the audience to make the Government feel the force of
their indignation.
I was kept in the Glasgow police-cells all night, and the next morning
was taken, a hunger and thirst striking prisoner, to Holloway, where I
remained for five memorable days. This was the seventh attempt the
Government had made to make me serve a three years' term of penal
servitude on a conspiracy charge, in connection with the blowing up of
Mr. Lloyd-George's country house. In the eleven and a half months since
I had received that sentence I had spent just thirty days in prison. On
March 14th I was again released, still suffering severely, not only from
the hunger and thirst strike, but from injuries received at the time of
my brutal arrest in Glasgow.
The answer to that arrest had been swift and strong. In Bristol, the
scene of great riots and destruction when men were fighting for votes, a
large timber-yard was burnt. In Scotland a mansion was destroyed by
fire. A milder protest consisted of a raid upon the house of the Home
Secretary, in the course of which eighteen windows were broken.
The greatest and most startling of all protests hitherto made was the
attack at this time on the Rokeby "Venus" in the National Gallery. Mary
Richardson, the young woman who carried out this protest, is possessed
of a very fine artistic sense, and nothing but the most compelling sense
of duty would have moved her to the deed. Miss Richardson being placed
on trial, made a moving address to the Court, in the course of which she
said that her act was premeditated, and that she had thought it over
very seriously before it was undertaken. She added: "I have been a
student of art, and I suppose care as much for art as any one who was in
the gallery when I made my protest. But I care more for justice than I
do for art, and I firmly believe than when a nation shuts its eyes to
justice, and prefers to have women who are fighting for justice
ill-treated, mal-treated, and tortured, that such action as mine should
be understandable; I don't say excusable, but it should be understood.
"I should like to point out that the outrage which the Government has
committed upon Mrs. Pankhurst is an ultimatum of outrages. It is murder,
slow murder, and premeditated murder. That is how I have looked at
it....
"How you can hold women up to ridicule and contempt, and put them in
prison, and yet say nothing to the Government for murdering people, I
cannot understand....
"The fact is that the nation is either dead or asleep. In my opinion
there is undoubted evidence that the nation is dead, because women have
knocked in vain at the door of administrators, archbishops, and even the
King himself. The Government have closed all doors to us. And remember
this--a state of death in a nation, as well as in an individual, leads
to one thing, and that is dissolution. I do not hesitate to say that if
the men of the country do not at this eleventh hour put their hand out
and save Mrs. Pankhurst, before a few more years are passed they will
stretch out their hand in vain to save the Empire."
In sentencing Miss Richardson to six month's imprisonment the
Magistrate said regretfully that if she had smashed a window instead of
an art treasure he could have given her a maximum sentence of eighteen
months, which illustrates, I think, one more queer anomaly of English
law.
A few weeks later another famous painting, the Sargent portrait of Henry
James, was attacked by a Suffragette, who, like Miss Richardson, was
sent through the farce of a trial and a prison sentence which she did
not serve. By this time practically all the picture galleries and other
public galleries and museums had been closed to the public. The
Suffragettes had succeeded in large measure in making England
unattractive to tourists, and hence unprofitable to the world of
business. As we had anticipated, the reaction against the Liberal
Government began to manifest itself. Questions were asked daily, in the
press, in the House of Commons, everywhere, as to the responsibility of
the Government in the Suffragette activities. People began to place that
responsibility where it belonged, at the doors of the Government, rather
than at our own.
Especially did the public begin to contrast the treatment meted out to
the rebel women with that accorded to the rebel men of Ulster. For a
whole year the Government had been attacking the women's right of free
speech, by their refusal to allow the W. S. P. U. to hold public
meetings in Hyde Park. The excuse given for this was that we advocated
and defended a militant policy. But the Government permitted the Ulster
militants to advocate their war policy in Hyde Park, and we determined
that, with or without the Government's permission, we should, on the
day of the Ulster meeting, hold a suffrage meeting in Hyde Park. General
Drummond was announced as the chief speaker at this meeting, and when
the day came, militant Ulster men and militant women assembled in Hyde
Park. The militant men were allowed to speak in defence of bloodshed;
but General Drummond was arrested before she had uttered more than a few
words.
Another proof that the Government had a law of leniency for militant men
and a law of persecution for militant women was shown at this time by
the case of Miss Dorothy Evans, our organiser in Ulster. She and another
Suffragette, Miss Maud Muir, were arrested in Belfast charged with
having in their possession a quantity of explosives. It was well known
that there were houses in Belfast that secreted tons of gunpowder and
ammunition for the use of the rebels against Home Rule, but none of
those houses were entered and searched by the police. The authorities
reserved their energies in this direction for the headquarters of the
militant women. Naturally enough the two suffrage prisoners, on being
arraigned in court, refused to be tried unless the Government proceeded
also against the men rebels. The prisoners throughout the proceedings
kept up such a disturbance that the trial could not properly go on. When
the case was called Miss Evans rose and protested loudly, saying: "I
deny your jurisdiction entirely until there are in the dock beside us
men who are well known leaders of the Ulster militant movement." Miss
Muir joined Miss Evans in her protest and both women were dragged from
the court. After an hour's adjournment the trial was resumed, but the
women again began to speak, and the case was hurried through in the
midst of indescribable din and commotion. The women were sent to prison
on remand, and after a four days' hunger and thirst strike were released
unconditionally.
The result of this case was a severe outbreak of militancy, three fires
destroying Belfast mansions within a few days. Fires blazed almost daily
throughout England, a very important instance being the destruction of
the Bath Hotel at Felixstowe, valued at L35,000. The two women
responsible for this were afterwards arrested, and as their trials were
delayed, they were, although unconvicted prisoners, tortured by forcible
feeding for several months. This occurred in April, a few weeks before
the day appointed for our deputation to the King.
I had appointed May 21st for the deputation, in spite of the fact that
the King had, through his Ministers, refused to receive us. Replying to
this I had written, again directly to the King, that we utterly denied
the constitutional right of Ministers, who not being elected by women
were not responsible to them, to stand between ourselves and the Throne,
and to prevent us from having an audience of His Majesty. I declared
further that we would, on the date announced, present ourselves at the
gates of Buckingham Palace to demand an interview.
Following the despatch of this letter my life was made as uncomfortable
and as insecure as the Government, through their police department,
could contrive. I was not allowed to make a public appearance, but I
addressed several huge meetings from the balcony of houses where I had
taken refuge. These were all publicly announced, and each time the
police, mingling with crowds, made strenuous efforts to arrest me. By
strategy, and through the valiant efforts of the bodyguard, I was able
each time to make my speech and afterwards to escape from the house. All
of these occasions were marked by fierce opposition from the police and
splendid courage and resistance on the part of the women.
The deputation to the King was, of course, marked by the Government as
an occasion on which I could be arrested, and when, on the day
appointed, I led the great deputation of women to the gates of
Buckingham Palace, an army of several thousand police were sent out
against us. The conduct of the police showed plainly that they had been
instructed to repeat the tactics of Black Friday, described in an
earlier chapter. Indeed, the violence, brutality and insult of Black
Friday were excelled on this day, and at the gates of the King of
England. I myself did not suffer so greatly as others, because I had
advanced towards the Palace unnoticed by the police, who were looking
for me at a more distant point. When I arrived at the gates I was
recognised by an Inspector, who at once seized me bodily, and conveyed
me to Holloway.