FOR THE CAUSE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 7, 9 January 1912, Page 3

FOR THE CAUSE.

SUFFRAGE OUTRAGE IN A I TEMPLE. | MR. ASQDITH HOWLED DOWN. A CASE FOR APOLOGIST 3. [rEOM OTTB OWN COBBBSrOSDENT { ] LONDON, Ist December. The British public lias suffered' much in the- cause of female suffrage. Tbat is to say, many good people who have either had no particular views on tho srubjeet at all or have perhaps sympathised with the uvwement, hava become tired io death of having their ordinary amusements and speeches and public meetings rudely disturbed by irrelevant shrieks ami hysterical demands for tho suffrage to be delivered up in person and on th« spftt. This has /gone so far that the ngiils of public THeeiings have long sineo been abandoned to a species of martial law under which none but the official speakers tiinst utter a. word. Tktt has come to be regarded as being fast at* essential as the usual vote of thanks to the- chairman. On Wednesday night, however, a new •pecies of outrage, evidently planned, was sprung upon a devout and perfectly harmless congregation at the famous City Temple, and there is as yet only an unbroken chorus of shocked indignation. The police were not to he put off their guard by the' fact that it was in a place of worship that Mr. Asquith (was to speak, and accordingly every precaution was taken to safeguard the meeting at the Temple against any outrage which might be planned. There ;were strong posses of police at all the entrances to the Temple, and a reserve dorce was kept in the basement, while inside (the chtrrch! were many plain clothes police) constables scattered (throughout the congregation. The meeting was in support of the •Mansfield' Souse University Settlement at Canning Town, and Mr. Asqaith had found time in a very busy week to •how his sympathy with the movement. Dr. Selbie, the chairman, referred to the expected interruptions, and appealed to the audience to give him a patient hearing and permit him to return a 6 «srly as possible to. the House of Compnons. A FRIENDLY NARRATIVE. Let us, for the sake of security, quote tho report of the proceedings whioh is given by the Daily News, since there is no paper in London which is . more friendly, to the female* suffrage cause. "Hardly had the Premier advanced to the desk when a man in the gallery ehduted: 'Mr. Asquith, will you allow the Hoase of v-Commons to control foreign affairs? Will you abandon Persia l to— ■ — •? ' For the moment the character of the interruption took the audience by surprise, but a storm of hisses soon drowned the speaker, who .was ejected struggling and shouting. " ' I have come here to-night,' Mr. Asquith began. Bat he could get no further. A woman began to shout incoherently, and wafi quickly joined by a second on the floor of the church. With rising colour and a slightly sarcastic smile on his lips, the Prime Mm-, ister watched the stewards perform their difficult task; then proceeded: 'I was •aying I have come here to-night ' CHAINED TO A PILLAR. " ' Mr. Asquith,' shrieked a woman under the gallery. She wae quickly, removed. "'To fulfil a rather improvident promise,' went on Mr. Aequitn imperturbably, 'which I made some months ago to my friend Mr. Percy Alden, that it Parliamentary and _. other exigencies, allowed — -' " At this point a. woman in the centre of one of the front pews began to shout, ■with almost automatic iteration, 'No manhood suffrage !' She had tied herself to one of the gallery supports, and two minutes passed before she could be silenced and dragged out. During the process a ball of paper was flung on to the rostrum, bearing the words, ' Woman's suffrage must be a Government measure. We demand votes on the same terms as men. To give it to the right is to be truly strong.' "After a pause Mr. Asquith said quietly, ' If I cannot have silence I shall go.' '"I say/ he went on, 'that I have come here to congratulate you on the completion by Mansfield House of twentyone years of life and work, and as I am only able to be hers for a very; few minute*— — ' "Another woman having been removed shouting, .the Prime Minister added : 'It rests .with the audience whether those minutes shall be occupied by ladies and gentlemen downstairs or by myself. (A voice : ' Keep right on/ and applause.) lam old enough to recollect, ladies and gentlemen— ' "Screaming broke out at thie point in •everal parts of the church, and was greeted with a storm of booing. There ,were signs that the temper of the meeting was rising to a dangerous heat, and Mr. Asquith, after watching the scene . for a few moments, put his notes in his pocket, shook hands with the chairman, and left the * platform. He had been facing the audience for exactly eight minutes, but had spoken for barely one. 4 " The Prime Minister's exit waft the signal for a tremendous burst of cheering. Several more women who Mad risen with the apparent intention of shouting were removed with some roughness. LABOUR LEADER'S REBUKE. " Without making any reference to the disturbance, Dr. Selbie at once called upon Mr. Ramsay Macdonald to address the meeting. . " Speaking slowly, his face pale and very stern, Mr. Macdonald said : ' One would prefer to bo oblivious to, and to forget, the degrading and disgusting •ccno— (applause)— at which we have just been looking. Those of us who have any regard fc«r womanhood-^heav, hear) •—those of us. who have any ideals regarding woman's intelligence and woman's conduct, must) simply bow tho head 'in shame.' (Applause, and a voice from a bearded man below the rostrum. 'What are you going to do? Are you going to vote for manhood suffrage?') Tho "intefrtititef was ejected, struggling. " ' For my own part, if I leli that the e&u*o had come to this I would go into tha lobby every time against it.' " (Applause.) . There was unanimous approval at the «nd of the meeting when the chairman ©f the committee said ;— "1 am going^ to tick this meeting to request Mr. Alden to express to Mr. Asquith, on our behalf, okv disappointment at the attack which prevented him from addressing vis, aud to assure him of our hearty sympathy and our warmest thanks. I will nob trust myself to characterise the actions and attitude of ihoee who interrupted this tneettntt." > Tho lady who was chained io the pil- ' la? was the cause of the greatest trouble. In their eft'orte to get ncr out of the Temple the stewards tried several keys to open the lock by which sbe was «ccured in her position, but -without spc<^£e. After Mr. Aiquith had left she promised tr> make no further disturbance, and eventually she pranced the key, reieaeed hermf, and walked out of tho , church amid the loud hissing of iho ■*ydi«co. A PROTEST AGAINST SACCILEGE. Th* Telegraph describes the 'seen* of fandemomum as the most deplorable «x-

hibition over arranged in the interest* of the movement. Tho Express says that this "abominable conduct" is the outcome of hysterical hooliganism." "To howl down the Prime Minister in a place of worship, where no political matter is in question, w sheer ruffianism. " The Daily News, with all its sympathy for the cause, asks : "What is the country to think of a cause that is> associated with, such scenes, whose advocates outrage a place of worship, do a cruel wrong 'to a noble institution, and howl down the nation's first citizen when he snatches a few moments from his thousand activities to 6peak a, word foi the poor?" / Silt EDWARD GREY'S EEBUKE. - With reference to the 6cene at the Tempie, Sir Edward Grey, one of the advocates of female suffrage in the Government 1 , writes to Lord Lytton : "The present situation is that an indifferent prospect of obtaining the enfranchisement of 1,000,000 women under the Conciliation Bill may be exchanged for a good prospect of the enfranchisement of some 5,000,000 women by an amendment to a Government Bill, moved, if 1100658817, by a Cabinet Minister. As far as I can judge, a larger measure of uni"u than had yet been apparent in the case of the Conciliation Bi& "Some of us who are united in regard to such an amendment have already made engagements to advocate the cause of women|s suffrage on these lines. But acts of violence, culminating last night in the disorderly scenes at a meeting for a charitable purpose, addressed by the Prime Minister, have done immense mischief to the cause. As a matter of fact, we cannot advocate it successfully when conduct of this sort alienates numbers of people who would otherwise be disposed to give it a fair and favourable hearing. Nor can it be expected that people like myself, who are colleagues and friends of the Prime Minister, can give active support to any movement while some of its supporters make him the object of a demonstration" such as occurred last night. In saying thie, I know that I express the feeling of othere who are my colleagues as well as ol myself. I feel bound to say that for any of us to give active support to the cause of women's *uffra-ge while this violent conduct is continued would be repugnant to our own good feeling; and even if that were not so it would, in the circumstances, be sheer waste of time."