WOMEN CHOOSE GAOL

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 342, 31 October 1908, Page 5

WOMEN CHOOSE GAOL

SUFFRAGIST WAR. j A FORMIDABLE FICHTINC FUND. DEFIANT AUSTRALIAN. (bi telegraph—press association—copyeishtO (Rec. October 30, 9.40 p.m.) y London, October 30. As a result of the recent disturbances at the House of Commons,-';twelvo of the suffragists ivho were arrested, were fined £5 each. They preferred the alternative, imprisonment for one month. One case was adjourned. Minor offenders were discharged. Mr. A. A. Hopkins,' the Magistrate, told Miss Muriel Matters that he would be so glad to receive an Australian lady's expression of regret and promise not to offend again. Miss Matters replied that she intended to do, her best to improve the conditions of women in Britain, and would not return ' to Australia until the fight was won.. The suffragists who; elected to go to gaol were sent to the third division.... They will wear prison dress, will be employed in useful work, and will be liable to punishment if they neglect their work. '[The first division has comparatively mild conditions. In tho second division, the offender has to wear prison clothes, eat prison fare, scrub her own cell, receive no newspapers or letters, see no friends during first month, dispense with night attire,, and spend 23 hours out of the 24 in solitary confinement. The third division means, as stated in-the cablegram, labour and punishment in default.] - - •-

OFFENCES IN PARLIAMENT. LEGISLATION LIKELY; (Rec. October 30,-11.22 p.m.) • London, October 80. The Prime Minister,' Mr.' Asquith, is-con-sidering a proposal to legislate to punish brawling in Parliament by fine or imprisonment. RAISING FIFTY THOUSAND. , HALF SECURED. . LIVELY TIME AHE'AD FOR, CABINET MINISTERS..' (Rec. October,3o, 11.22 p.m.) -London,' October 30. The Women's Social Political Union held a crowded meeting at,, the. Albert Hall, the members of the . Union wearing white robes and "suffragette stoles."They raised £2000," making a sum of £25,000 towards a £50,000 fund, out of' which to oaiTy on the campaign to a finish. The suffragists' tactics include the preventing of Cabinet Ministers from speaking. , « CAMPAIGN CONTINUED. EXPELLED TOR INTERRUPTING THE PRIME MINISTER,' London, "October' 29." Fourteen Buffragists.„were .expelled for interrupting and insulting, the 'Prime Minister (Mr. Asquith) during his speech at the opening of a bazaar at Isljng&n, "fipndon. ' Miss Sylvia Pankhurst announces that the women of Australia "intend .to petition: the British Government ; to enfranchise British women. " " . ' THE IDENTITY OF'-MURI EL-MATTERS. ONE OF THE CHiiNED WOMEN. The startling cable, piessage. that., appeared in The Domkiox of yesterday, describing the 'scene in the House''6f''CoriVmoiis created' by suffragists ard their sympathisers: in' the Strangers' Gsllerj-.;. will ...bring, home to many people on this side of the globe the great struggle the women are putting up at Home to obtain what the women of this Dominion enjoy, without perhaps' estimating their privilege at its .true Value.. The cablegrams that are .being''sent;out-almost daily recounting the methods that- are being adopted 'to bring about a geneifal franchise for women should remind their sisters in this Dominion of the power they possess and the early opportunity there will be for exercising it...... ~ The. most daring things ye,t-attempted 'was the action of two women,' who had' locked thomselves to an iron'; grille, 'or 'grating 1 , by a chain, whioh engirdled their waists, and could not be induced to unlock themselves when authority intervened, and so grating and women had to bo carried off the premises together,, and the encircling chain filed away by locksmiths. One of the padlocked twain (who was /afterwards arrested for participating in therdisturb-'. ance) was Miss Muriel Matters, who. informed an interviewer that she had voted twice in Australian elections.

Miss Matters is not unknown in ;New Zealand. Her people are residents of 'Adelaide. About eleven or twelve'years'ago,'the young lady, who was somewhat of 'an elocutionist, went on the stnge under the name 'of Muriel Mathers, and toured New Zealand"-with " the first "Sign of the Cross"".Company, headed by Mr* Julius Knight and Miss Ada j?errar. Some two years lator she again visited the Dominion with tho Brough Company,, playing small parts. Her friends in Wellington'state that in her theatrical days she was a'girl of marked character, who learned to" baffle for what she considered her rights in a -school .(tho stage) which is as hard a trainingground''for' the good girl with ambition as any in the scope of women's work. Subsequently' MiSs Matters,' or Mathers, resided in Sydney, and used to recite a good deal professionally at'social functions and concerts.