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Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 108, 12 June 1914, Page 6

Sylvia Pankhurst, the gentle feminine Larkin, is again in custody, while her law-abiding mother is hard put to elude the clutching fingers of the Law. Sylvia's mass deputation, which was to beard the Prime Minister, and threaten him if necessary, failed to pass the police guards at Parliament House, and the dozen militants that were .granted entry were received by the s Chief Liberal Whip. When the inflanynatory Sylvia addressed her. troops, advising them as to what action should be taken when the suffragists came face to face with Mr Asquith, she hinted that she •'might not be alive after Wednesday. 5 ' Timid people discerned in the remark a sinister something which might easily, materialise in the shape of a bomb, but it appears that she is ill —the desperate performances of the dishevelled militants are breaking her body, if not her spirit. This young woman made a melodramatic attendance at the procession, being borne on a stretcher, after the best manner of conquering monarchs sick in body who refuse to resign the leadership of the legions. The last few days have seen leading publicists, who could never be charged with a lack of humanitarian instincts, rise up and declare that if the suffragette prisoners decline to eat the fare provided, then there is no alternative but to allow them to die of starvation. It is not to be wondered at that the Government hesitates to be privy to slow, suicides, but these wild women have gone to such lengths in blasphemy, destruction, and vindictive vandalism generally, that it is obvious they cannot be allowed at large until they show signs of mending their ways. It has been suggested that they should be treated as subjects mentally afflicted, but the hunger strike could be carried out as effectively in an asylum as in.

gaol. It may be that the turning.point in this very one-sided and extraordinary conflict is not far off —one indication is that the general public, which once was wont to look upon the outrageous behaviour of the Pankhurstians as amusing, has. been moved to express its disfavour of such tactics now by paj'ing the suffragettes in their own coin. If the Law will oblige by looking the other way sometimes when these clashes occur, it may help the fiery Amazons to realise that their methods are considered particularly obnoxious by the people, and will not be always tolerated. Hence much good may come of a little evil;