THE SUFFRAGETTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10497, 6 November 1912, Page 3

THE SUFFRAGETTES.

A 44 DAYS’ :FAST. London, !fSeptember 21. The question the suffragists in prison in Ireland should be allowed to commit suicide by the hunger strike was answered yesterday in dramatic "fashion. Mrs Mary Leigh, one of the two English suffragists sentenced to five years’ penal servitude for attempted arson at the Theatre Royal, Dublin, on the occasion of Mr Asquith’s visit, was released from Mount joy prison in a state of physical collapse. She has [been forcibly fed for 44 days, and during the last few days alarming changes occurred in her health. Sir Christopher Nixon and Sir Thomas Myles were called yesterday morning to the prison to examine her. Soon after, on their advice, she was conveyed to a priy vate hospital. The effect on her health is attributed, not to the forcible 'feeding, but to deliberate starvation, as she has acquired the knack of ejecting her food as soon as administered. The other prisoner Gladys Evans, has not become debilitated so'far, and it is stated that her hunger strike is fitful. Mrs Leigh was discharged later in the day on license by order of, the Lords Justices of the Privy 'Council, in the absence of the Lord Lieutenant, and her imprisonment term is practically cancelled, as her license amounts in effect to complete discharge.