SUFFRAGETTES AND KING.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16559, 25 May 1914, Page 7

SUFFRAGETTES AND KING.

RAID ON BUCKINGHAM PALACE

EXCITING STREET SCENES

WOMEN CHARGE MOUNTED POLICE,

SIXTY-SEVEN ARRES’I'S

By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. LONDON, May 22.

In connection with the attempted suffragette raid on Buckingham Palace one hundred women marched to Grosvenor Street and hurled themselves against the closed gates.

An infuriated clergyman in his shirtsleeves took part in many scuffles, but the police easily repelled the more serious disorders.

On Constitution Hill women armed with shears tried to cut the bridles of the mounted police. Others with Indian clubs attacked the constables, or flung themselves at the police, but were thrown to the ground. While one policeman was temporarily blinded with paint, women struck him with dubs, and he was sent to the hospital unconscious. A number of bedraggled women ran the gauntlet through an unsympathetic crowd, but were arrested, carried to Wellington Arch and there locked in a room. They smashed the windows and broke up the furniture. 1 The crowd recognised Miss Billington and severely maltreated her. The police found her crying bitterly and escorted her to a place of safety. Sixty-seven arrests were effected, including several during disturbances in the night at Whitehall, whore the Government offices were strongly guarded. Tho prisoners from the Wellington Arch were “ttaken to Scotland Yard. Many escaped to the roof and addressed the crowd on the Embankment, but were subsequently recaptured.

IN THE DOCK. . RIOTOUS BEHAVIOUR. [ LONDON, May 22. The suffragettes arrested at the Palace lrehaved riotously at Bow Street. They hurled shoes and papers at the Magistrate and tried to climb over the dock railings. Packets of white powder wero hurled indiscriminately by the crowd in Court, which was cleared alter exciting struggles.

One woman was sentenced to ten days’ imprisonment. The others were bound over,

“ YOU CZAR.”

STIR AT A MATINEE

MILITANTS CHAINED TO SEATS. LONDON, May 22. The King .and Queen attended a matineee at His Majesty’s theatre. A suffragette, chained in the stalls, addressed King George, and shouted “You Czar.” She was removed strug- • gling- . Another, chained to an adjoining seat, shrieked, and was gagged until a mechanic removed the seat bodilv.

Another clambered on to the stage and harangued* King Georgi?. She was pushed into the auditorium and ejected. A similar interruption followed, and seven, women and two men were ejected. The police were compelled to rescue the ejected persons from a hostile crowd in the street. BOMB IN CHURCH. AN EDINBURGH OUTRAGE. LONDON, May 22. Suffragettes exploded a bomb in the Rosehall Church, Edinburgh,! but little damage resulted. - MORE RAIDS ON PICTURE GALLERIES. FAMOUS PAINTINGS DAMAGED. LONDON, May 22. A suffragette smashed five pictures at the National Gallery. Another smashed pictures at the Royal Academy. A woman entered tho Venetian room with a hammer concealed in her clothing, and smashed all the pictures within her reach, slightly damaging a painting of the Madonna and Child, witli infant saints, a portrait by Girolano, the Malatine Madonna and Child, Christ’s Agony in the Garden, St Peter the Martyr, St John and St Christopher and a portrait, of the Doge.

The woman when arrested was cut by broken glass. Simultaneously another suffragette in the Academy, with a cleaver smashed a picture, which was damaged to the extent of £250. She was also arrested. GALLERIES CLOSED. A PERSISTENT MILITANT. (Received May 24, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, May 23. The National Gallery and Wallace Collection have been closed indefinitely. Documents found by the/police during a raid on a house at Maida Vale included plans of a country house and several coils of inflammable cord. Annie Kenney interviewed the Primate and announced her intention of remaining at Lambeth Palace. Finally she was arrested under the Cat and Mouse Act. THE THEATRE DISTURBANCE. INDIGNATION OF THE AUDIENCE. (Received May 24, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, May 23. Besides the attempt at haranguing in His Majesty’s Theatre leaflets were showered into the stalls past the front of the Royal box. The King and Queen were unmoved throughout, but the audience, of which two-thirds were women, exhibited intense indignation at- the disturbances.

PANDEMONIUM IN COURT.

BLOWS EXCHANGED WITH POLICE.

In most of the Police Courts where suffragettes were charged pandemonium reigned, especially at Bow Street. The sixty-five accused struggled and yelled, and male and female sympathisers joined in the. uproar. Blows were exchanged with the police before the Court was cleared. A hatless suffragette, threw a boot, which the Magistrate, Sir John Dickinson. deftly caught with his left hand.

ATTEMPT TO DESTROY GLASGOW’S WATER SUPPLY. (Received May 25, 12.1 a.m.) LONDON, May 24. Suffragettes placed bombs alongside the pipes conveying water from Loch Katrine to Glasgow, but the fuse blew out before reaching the detonator. An explosion would have cut off half Glasgow’s water supply. PICTURE SLASHER AT EDINBURGH. A suffragette gashed Lavery’s picture of the King at the Scottish Academy at Edinburgh. She was arrested. BRITISH MUSEUM SUFFERS. Two suffragettes smashed a mummycase at the British Museum. The contents were unharmed. One of the women, named Wheeler, was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment, and the other, named Say, to a month. SUFFRAGETTE HEADQUARTERS RAIDED.

The police raided the Women’s Political Union offices and arrested Grace Rue, general secretary, who was charged with conspiring with Nellie Hall to damage property.