The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1912. THE SUFFRAGETTE PERIL.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 303, 19 December 1912, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1912. THE SUFFRAGETTE PERIL.

For the (s<h tha< lacks (—ifetwntm, For the wrong that need* resiattnee. For th€ future t» the diatence, And t*m good that toe <ml» do.

To judge by the latest pronouncements of the Suffragette leaders, the militant section of the Women's Fr_n.chise agitators are preparing to "stagger humanity 1 ' by methods even more sensational and dramatic than those they have niffierto employed. A few days ago Srs. Paiikhurst was assuring a startled world tha% nothing was to be,: safe from the Suffragette crusaders but human life; and now we have lira. Pethick Lawrence chiming in in very much the same key. This is certainly rather ominous, because Mrs. Pethick Lawrence and her husband have hitherto been understood tc dissociate themselves from the more violently militant programme put forward by Mrs. Pankhurst and her daughters. Jt appears that while llr. and JMrs. Pethick Law- \ rencc were in prison six months ago, the indefatigable Miss Christabel Pankhurst and her mother formulated a plan of campaign, which the Pethick Lawrences on their release from durance vile I found themselves unable to endorseUp to this point the Pethick La and the P_nkhursts had worked in absolute harmony, and had co-operated Ln all the Suffragette demonstrations most amicably. But now they had reached the parting of the ways, and the Pethick Lawrences formally announced that they could not support the policy that the Pankhursts favoured. The withdrawal of the Pethick Lawrences was effected in good order and in an outwardly friendly spirit; in fact, the whole episode carried with it something of the dignity and circumstance eyf a great political crisis. But nobody laughed— apparently the British public stands too much in awe of the Suffragettes to treat them with derision; and Mrs. Pankhurst and her daughters were left in absolute control of the party's funds—some £10.000, exclusive of certain valuabitr projiertif_—and of the' party's policy for the immediate future.

Xor did Mrs . Pankhurst, hesitate to let the people of England and t_e Government know what was in store for" them. To do that eccentric .lady jjjstice, she has never shown any lack of either physical or moral courage, and her address delivered at the Albert Hall after the secession of the Pethick Lawrences left no sort of doubt in the public, mind as to-the methods of warfare the militant party mejant to adopt. "It, is through property," she told her excited audience amid loud outbursts of applause, that we shall attack the enemy, and -what sacrifice or injury to property accrues will mat be our fault, but that of the.Government." Mrs Pan kh ana did not explain fully what co _ ree __ c h:.ieaded the Suffragettes to take, but the general tenor of her discourse was painfully dear. "J incite this meeting to rebellion," she declared. "Those of •you -who Tn-aut to go to the Hodse- ol Oommo-s and refuse to he sent away, do co. Those who *__ face mobe at Cohinet AUr-ster*' meeting-, do so. Those who can break windows, break them. Those of you who can still (tur.tiher attack ,Uho eacred idol of property, so as to make the. Government j__sa that property Is as greatly endangered sa it was 'n fhn days tA the Chartists, do so," Naturally this fiery denunciation a-roused a great deal of anxiety in lis public -mind, and it can. not be 6_d that Airs Panihurst's reepemee '*o a ceque<?t to explain herself meire fully, twos c_lcuift±«d to cruell .these

appi_be_t_o_s. The Suffragettes, "tj&e statesd, meant; to be store militant than ever. "W« "have Tj"se_' grossly befcraye*! by j _»--Gw-iM-__ieti_7 and that -ejrarrants Jnitifcuicy. It is our only weapon, as we do not po_tees AA-at of votes. I shall net tell you -what -we propose to do, for yon cannot expect one to disclose our plan of -campaign."- But she :wT_it on to assure 'herjhestrers t_*t even the Suffragettes would draw (the line eomerwheres. "A3a,rn>i,°± Tumours are afloat to the effesct that we intend to make attacks trpon Jhirmah life. To that we give an absolute aixl uncompromising dearial. Our imalitancy Congrats in defiance of legal en—ctments and in attacks trpon property. The only limit set is that human life shall he respected. Title policy of destroying human life is left to the Unroaist party and to the combatants in the Near East. We accent tiie responsibility for all .that -we intend to do.'* Our readers will admit that this -was not paajtacularly Tea_suri__, and. subsequent events have cea-tamly „ot tended to evoke public sympathy for the new plan of campaign which "the Peth-ick Lawrences once rep-d-iated and which the Pankhursts support. It will be .observed that Mrs. Pankhurst has expressly disclaimed any intention of endangering or sacrificing human life in the cause of Women's Franchise. But it is not easy to see ■ how she and her colleagues can condone | certain attempts to set fire to buildings, lor explain the capture of Suffragettes i with bombs in their possession, exce; t ]on the assumption that any sort oi i criminal violence ia permissible to women who have not the right to vote. Within the past week, moreover, Mrs. Pankhurst seems to have taken an even more violent tone, assuring her followers and the general public that not even ■the- infliction of capital punishment will check the Suffragette crusade. It V fair to suggest that if Mrs. Pankhurst contemplates death at the hands of the law as a possible close for her own career, .she is prepared to commit acts that might legally justify such "_" penalty. And now Mrs. Pethick Lawrence, apparently repenting of her temporary weakness, has come to the front again, warning the Suffragettes that they must prepare to "smash or he smashed," and that they must, if necessary -'-break and destroy the material Substance of life, and acquiesce if the material substance of our life is de«troy.d." e j, _~. soau<k ">sane to us, and one cannot heln wondering if Lord Carzo _ __ t P when a few weeks ago he warned. Ihe Suffragettes that in striving. ior \_ e franchise they were forgetting the need for guarding their own womanhood More recently Mrs. Besant, who has done at least as much for women all the world over as Mrs. Pankhurst, has appealed to the Suffragettes not to be deluded into, crime. She warns them that just as the Nihilists killed the movement towards freedom in Russia with their bombs and daggers, so the Pankhursts will kill the Suffragette, .cause by arraying all society against them -to .punish their misdeeds. "For -crime is crime, whether the motive be political or personal; it pollutes the cause which uses it; and no civilized State can admit a burnin" theatre as a relevant argument for women's suffrage:'' There is more logical and mora force in this plea than in all the fiery rhodomontades the Pankhursts and the Pethrick Lawrences are so fond of indulging in. And whether the Suffragettes understand it or not, they will soon be forced, to learn that no single section of the community can be permitted to set all moral laws and social restrictions at defiance to attain its own ends.