SUFFRAGETTE BATTLE.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14242, 3 January 1912, Page 2

SUFFRAGETTE BATTLE.

MORE THAN TWO HUNDRED ARRESTS.

CRUSAI>E OF WINDOW-BREAKING,

TURBULENT STREET SCENES

(from ock owx cobeespondkntO

LONDON, November 24

The threatened attempt of the suffragettes to 6end a deputation to the Prime Minister at the House of Corneous took place on Tuesday night, and was a fiasco so far as entering Ihe House was concerned. At the same time, extraordinary scenes yrere "witnessed, and the raid was made serious by a new development in the hooligan tactics which these women have adopted. The development took the form ot an organised window-smashing crusade. Dozens of windows were broken in Whitehall, the Strand, Fleet street, and Victoria street. Piccadilly Circus was also included in the area of .ho violent smashers. Altogether 223 arrests were made.

It may bo explained that only last week the Prime Minister and Mr Lloyd George received a woman's euffrage deputation. In regard to the Conciliation Bill, tho Prime Minister stated that his promise for debate and possible adoption by the House of Commons heicL good, while he further promised that if a woman's amendment was carried to the Manhood Suffrage Bill it would be incorporated in tho Bill, and be pushed forward by tho full force of the Government. Mr Asquith laid down tho principle that as both parties are divided on the question of votes for women, the House of Commons would have to decide thet matter. This answer did not satisfy the Women's Social and Political. Union, led by Mrs Pankhurst and Mrs Pethick Lawrence, the Union demanding that votes for women should ba included in the Government's Reform Bill.

A meeting was held during the evening in Carton Hall, where great excitement prevailed. Round the galleries were suspended banners, with such mottoes as "Fortune favours the Brave," "Awake, Arise, or be for ever Fallen," "Perseverance and Audacity Win," "The Guard dies but never Surlenders," and "The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance." THE RESOLUTION. . Miss CHristabel Pankhurst presided over the meeting, which carried the following resolution, with aoclama■tion :— "This meeting condemns the Government's announcement of a Manhood Suffrage Bill as agrave and unpardonable insult to women; firmly refuses to allow the political enfranchisement of women to depend! upon a mere amendment to the Man- ! hood Suffrage Bill;'demands'that the Government abandon the Manhood Suffrage Bill and introduce ' and carry in the next Parliament a measuro giving precisely equal franchee ; rights to men and women; and further, the meeting declares its iesolve to enforce this 'reasonable 'de-' mand upon the attention of the Government and of the electors by vigorous and determined militant action." Miss PankEurst explained that, in view of the methods adopted by the police, the suffragettes had thrown out, their advance posts in order to , pro-' tect Mrs Petbick Lawrence, who would head the deputation to St. Stephen's. t She went on to denounce the Government's proposal of manhood suffrage unless it embraced votes for women, do* daring that it was a trap for the! suffragists, but that they would be too. wise to fall into it. ''; ' " , | / Mrs Pethick Lawrence. addressed the meeting and'declared:, '("We who are on this deputation to-night are already outside our body. WeTknow that our hands, our feet, and all that wei have are being used by the Groat Spirit to carry out the great purposes of Sis will. It is that which destroys any possibility of anxiety or fear or consciousness of pain. Wβ know that here we offer and present ourselves, our souls, and bodies, to be a living sacrifice for all those sins of the "world whose taproot is in I sex domination. Wβ go to-night not only to fight for the freedom of the women of our own country, but to carry a message of deliverance to the whole world." THE RAID. Then followed the raid, with the familiar incidents that previous raids by these women have produced. The police were in full force, and it is again admitted by all impartial spectators , that they behaved with uncommon leniency towards the suffragettes, and only made arrests when absolutely forced to do so. The police had wieely determined not to stop the traffic, and the constant | passage of omnibuses, motor cabs,' and other vehicles, helped to break up the crowd, who thronged the roadways and pavements alike. One' woman almost managed to c?t into Parliament square' by hanging like a street boy on the back of a taxi-cab. A number of the women chained themselves to the iron railings surrounding Parliament square. Only one woman succeeded in reaching the "St. Stephen's entrance, and she was a cripple riding a tricycle bearing the inscription, "Votes for women." The police, in order,that she should not receive any injury, allowed her to paas through their lines, where she was detained. THE WINDOW BREAKING. The suffraeettes then eeparated into twos and threes and went up Whitehall and the Strand, and also down Victoria street, breaking windows in_ a wholesale manner. Among the buildings in which windows were broken were:—The Home Office, Local Government, Board, Treasury, Scottish Education Office, National' Liberal Club, Somerset House, Charing Cross Telegraph Office, Cecil Hotel, Westminster Palace' Hotel, Messrs Swan and Edgar's, United Service Club. Guards' Club, Lyons (Strand), West Strand Post Office, War Office, Parliament street Post Office, National • Liberal Federation, Sir Weetman Pearson, Ltd., securities department, Parliament street, Dunn's hat shop in the Strand, Saqui and Lawrence (jewellers, Strand), West End Tailors, Strand, Heppell's (chemist), Strand, Rimmel's (perfumery), newspaper offices in Fleet street* The window-smashing, was done in a most methodical manner, the stones used being enclosed in small linen bags which, by the aid of linen, tapes, were used as slings. SOME INCIDENTS. Mrs Pethick Lawrence, the leader of the deputation, made a determined struggle to get through the cordon. Aided by two or three members of the deputation, she battled with the police for fully twenty minutes, at the end of which time she was in a state of semiexhaustion. She encountered three mounted police at the St. Margaret Church cordon, and at last she was taken off to Cannon Row, with another lady clinging round her neck. The central zone of hostilities was the small area in front of St. Margaret's Church, where fashionable wedding crowds usually gather. Behind the cordon here were several M.P.'e, .some of I them bare-headed, who evidently found the physical struggle between police ! and women more entertaining than the ] debate on. the Insurance Bill. , "This is the way to Westminster," ! cried one tall, buxom lady, climbing, over the railings, surrounding the grass | ! plots in the square, and making a dash across to the other side. She was pursued by two or three constables and one ' plain-clothes man. "Am I arrested?" she panted, with a smile. "Oh, no, not yet," replied the policeman, holding

her back. Subsequently; however, slie was marched'off to Cannon Row. Charing Cross Post Office was badly damaged. The stones came hurtling through the air with savage velocity. Passers-by, had narrow escapes. Innocent women pedestrians ecreamed and dashed in confusion across the thoroughfare-, coming into considerable danger in the traffic . Most of the women seemed anxious to get arrested as quickly as possible, for they invariably chose the moment when a policeman was near to throw stones. One suffragist was injured in the scuffle. She was immediately taken behind the police cordon, and after receiving attention was taken to the hospital. . , An elderly man alleged that he saw a policeman assault one young woman. Another elderly man declared that the charge was untrue, and the only result of the protest was a bout of fisticuffs between the two men. Wherever possible the ladies were snapshotted on arrest, and in one case the constables kindly paused while the camera-man fell on his knees in order to secure the victim's likeness. "And, now, may I have your name?" he enquired, with a touch of gallantry. The name, of course, was quickly given. A Parliamentary writer says the police were cordially cheered, which i indicates the verdict of the public, while members of the House of Commons were frankly disgusted by the em- ! ployment of young cirls for such pur- | poses.