THE SUFFRAGISTS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 329, 16 October 1908, Page 7

THE SUFFRAGISTS.

VIOLENT ELEMENTS.

A CALL FOR STERNER TREATMENT. THIRTY-SEVEN ARRESTS. (BT TELEGRA.rH—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COI'mIGHT.) London, October 14. The Prime Minister, Mr. Asquith, declined to receive a suffragist deputation, and, following tho refusal, a series of rushes to reach tho House of Commons was mado by suffragists. Tho attempts, however, proved ineffectual. A crowd, including many unemployed and some hooligans, tried to break through the police cordon, and some persons were injured in the crush. Admirable police arrangements rendered the demonstration an ignominious failure. Twenty-four women and thirteen men wero arrested. "Tho Times" and "Daily Chronicle" declare that the suffragists are now making themselves the nucleus of mobs in which there are dangerous elements, and in which rowdies are couspicuous. They aro, according to both papers, becoming a nuisance, aud their actions call for sterner treatment than heretofore. SOME CHOOSE CAOL. SENTENCES ON MALE ASSOCIATES. (Rec. Ootober 15, 10.15 p.m.) London, October 15. Several of thp suffragists who wero arrested in connection with tho attempt on the House of Commons elected to go to prison for a month, instead of entering into a recognisance and finding sureties for their good behaviour for a year. Some of tho defendants secured an adjournment in order to obtain legal aid. Three males were sent to gaol for kicking or striking tho police. Others were fined, or wore bound over to keep the peace.

DEMONSTRATION IN COMMONS. WAS IT PRE-ARRANGED? (Roc. October 15, 9.55 p.m.) London, October 15. Considerable comment is made on tlio action of Mrs. Symons, who, through Mr. ldris (private secretary to Mr. Keir Hardio'l, obtained admittance to the small side window near the main entrance of the House of Commons, and thence interrupted the debato with an appeal for "votes for women. Mrs. SymonSj who was expelled, said tlio act was unpremeditated, and apologised to Mr, ldris. Tho Speaker (the Right Hon. J. W. Lowther) has announced that, while lie is not excluding ladies from tho inner lobby of the House of Commons, he has ordered that none bo allowed to go past tho doorkeepers, This prevents access to the window._ . Mrs. Symons is soverely criticised for not applying to Mr. Keir Hardio himself, instead of to his secretary, for admittance to tho lobby. . It is said that her only want of premeditation was in applying to Mr. ldris. It is now declared that, her demonstration was the result of consultation among the leaders of the Women's Social Political TJnion. TREATMENT IN GAOL. In. Ju1y,.27 suffragists'were serving periods of imprisonment up to three nionths in- the second division, and two were in the third division. In view of the projected Bill providing that women political offenders shall bo treated as first-class misdemeanants unless they have' damaged property, or done bodily harm to anyone, a comparison of the different grades of imprisonment, is interesting. In the first division prisoners are permitted to Wear their own clothes. Buy their food. liecoivo and write letters. Head newspapers. See their friends. Occupy a double cell, which they may furnish. . Employ a prisoner as a servant. In tho ease of prisoners placed in the second division, it is provided that they must Wear prison clothes. y Dispense with night attire. Spend twenty-three hours of tho twentyfour in solitary'confinement. Read no newspapers. Receive no letters and see no friends until they have been in prison a • mouth. Bat prison fare. Sorub out their own cells each day. 'The third division means hard labour and the exercise is reduced from six hours to an hour and a half a week. LEADERS ARRESTED. ; BAIL ALLOWED. London, October 14. Mrs. Drummond, Mrs. Pankhurst, and (Miss Christabel Pankhurst were arrested for ignoring summonses to appear at Bow Street Police Court on a charge of trying to provoke a breach of the peace in connection with tho proposed rushing of the House of Commons. They were remanded for a week, bail being allowed.

c Mrs. Pankhurst, who took a prominent part ill the promotion of ;tho Married Women's Property Aot, is the founder of the Women's Social Political Union. She is the mother of a household of ardent suffragists, of whom Miss Christabel Pankhurst, LL.B., is perhaps the most prominent. Miss Christabel is a teachor, and applied to be admitted as a student of Lincoln's Inn in 1904, but was refused. She won the prize for international law at Victoria University (Owens College), Manchester, and took her LL.B., with honours, in 1906. She has been called tho Cicero of the movement. Mrs. Drummond is one of the most popular of the suffragists, and is described as by far the best general for guerilla' warfare in Parliament Square." She has been a teachor and a typist, and is known as "Goneral Bluebell."