A CHAT WITH A SUFFRAGETTE,

Otago Witness, Issue 2857, 16 December 1908, Page 82

A CHAT WITH A SUFFRAGETTE,

.«. Br Constance Cltde.

A stout, short woman in black velvet came into the smoking room of the Writers' Club and placed her bag on a chaiT as she rang for a cigarette. *'I had to have my thing*, with me at the court all day in case we might go direct to Holloway," she said, in a broad Yorkshire accent. The other members looked up from papers or cigarettes. They understood that- this was Mrs Drummond, one of the dauntless three on trial as loaders of the last Parliament square raid. All the evening, while crowds surged round the embankment up to Nelson's statue and further along the Strand', Mrs and Miss Pankhurst and their ally, the creators of the disturbance, lay in durance in the very unpleasant cells of the Bow Street Prison. " But we had a friend— an old-time enemy — to help us." said Mis Drummond cheerily. "Mr Murray, member for Aberdeen. We disturbed his meetings and heckled him. and now he has declared himself a convert." "How did he show his remorse?" "By sending us beds for our cells,' she responded, evidently- admiring his practical Scotch spirit, "and just as we were thinking of settling down we received intimation that there awaited us an excellent dianer, bent in by his orders from tlie Savoy Hotel — a dinner as good as any Mr Asquith sat down to, and we ate it, perhaps, with greater appetite — chicken, lobster, mayonnaise." The little North Country woman mentioned the items with relish. "The Savoy waiters attended us. I think it was the first time they ever performed their offices in a police court. Next day. when Mr Murray went to pay tbe bill, the manager, so we heard, refused to take the money. Murray himself was very sympathetic — eaid to Mrs Pankhurst that he was proud of conversing v ith a woman who had held up the traffic of London for four hours." Scotchmen have so much reverence for law and order that, paradoxically, they feel the greater homage towards those daring spirits that dare to go against them.

From Mrs Drammond's conversation I gathered that the thi'ee really had hope? of prolonging the police court case from Saturday to Saturday. Mrs Pankhurst's hopes, of course, were of a trial by jury. A® she informed the writer more than 18 months ago, she was aiming to be arrested, not as a mere raider, but as a seditious ~ person, so that, charged with a greater crime, she might appear in a greater court. For three months she ha? to rest in peace, but. once more released, s-he will undoubtedly repeat her performance, and challenge tho authorities to tho larger issue. While Mrs Drummond smoked, another member sj^oke half-humorously, half-

aggrievedly concerning the state of things j for women like herself, who had" to go to I Parliament on business. "Members are cursing because they have to come all the way for us when we have an appointmtent, instead of receiving . "us in the inner sanctum", as formerly. Once indoors, the --lady,- however well known, must not be left to herself a moment." ( If she goes for letters, or to consult, a ' bi other politician about any matter, there | is a certain line whereon yon must stand, j not moving a hairsbreadth from it — a ' frozer. statue. An Australian lady viei- j tor was charmed by what she called the j politeness of one member, who escorted i her, as she enthusiastically said, right to ' the very door. .She was not aware that j the member was only obeying the new I order which enfoioee him >to sea those dan- •! gcrous creatures, women, off the" premises j himself. z j "The suffragettes are going to get the j vote because they raid," said Victor Gray- . son, M.P. (ejected - from the House the, other day). * "Why don't you follow their ! example?" And the unemployed, thus I encouraged, seem inclined to do so. This may eventually be the true result of the ' \otes-for- women movement — a more deter- , mined rising among the men to demand ; work for the unemployed. State-owned .' workshops rather than State-owned work- ; houses ; labour bureaus instead of casual , words. I