THE SUFFRAGETTES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 209, 5 April 1913, Page 5

THE SUFFRAGETTES.

MRS. PANKHURST GETS THREE YEARS. MORE INCENDIARISM. By Cable—Press Association —Copyright. London, April ;!. Mrs. Panklmrst declined to give evidence. Her speech was a protest I against women not being tried by their peers. She gave a catalogue of manmade laws, and said that the divorce law alone was sufficient to justify a revolution. She would refuse to oat directly she was sentenced. The Judge told the jury that accused's remarks were whollv outside the case. Mrs. Panklmrst was sentenced to three years' imprisonment. The suffragettes in court cheered wildlv and sang the Marseillaise. The ".fudge threatened to commit them to prison if they did not stop the indecent exhibition.

Two unoccupied houses in llampstead Garden Suburb were discovered to be alight early this morning, but the outbreaks were extinguished. There was little damage done.

DAMAGING PICTURES. Received 4, 10.25 p.m. London, April 4. Suffragettes entered the Manchester Art Gallery and smashed the glass of thirteen pictures. Watts's "Evening Prayer" was damaged with a hammer. Three arrests were made. THE SCENE IN COURT. DEMONSTRATION BY WOMEN. Received 5, 12.1 sa.m. London, April 4. In concluding her speech. Mrs .Panklmrst declared that she would fight and fight. She described the scenes at the forcible feeding which takes place twice a day in prison. The woman resists overwhelming force and fights until she is fastened to a bed. Mrs. Panklmrst ended by saying exultantly:—"l am not afraid of punishment. I welcome it, because it is the onlv wav."

The jury made a strong recommendation to mercy. The Court was crowded with women, and the sentence was sreeted with a wild outburst of cries, hisses and waving of handkerchiefs, which con tinned until the Court was cleared.