SUFFRAGETTE PROSECUTION

Tuapeka Times, Volume XL, Issue 5597, 9 December 1908, Page 4

SUFFRAGETTE PROSECUTION

A MODERN PORTIA. The tragi-comedy of the suffragettes took a fresh turn when the three leaders of the movement, Mrs Pankhurst, Miss (Jhristabel Bankhurst, and Mrs Drummond, appeared in- the -dock at Bow Street to ansiwer a charge of inciting a riot. The proceedings excited an extraordinary amount of interest, owing largely to the presence of two Cabinet Ministers as witnesses. T3ie qross-exaxrnnaiioa <oi MrUoyaGeorge and Mr Herbert Gladstone by Miss Christabei Pankhurst, LL.Ii., was reported verbatim by the Press, and it is amusing to find "that the journals that natl been loudest in condemning 1 the l methods ol the sulfr«ig«eitea vied with on<^ another in gushing about Miss Pankhurst's ability in conducting- the case for the defence. One and all of them dragged in the obvious analogy of Portia defending Antonio in the High Court of Venice, and Miss " Portia " Bamikhurst figured in the contents bills of the newspapers. Special interest was taken in Miss Bankihurst's cross-exam-ijna'tibn of Mr X.loydJGteiopge, tru* in reality she giot very little out of the astute ' lawyer. Mrs Pankhurst and Mrs Drummond also cross-examined Mr Lloyd-George, but so far as the advancemeoit of their ease was eon- j cerned,' they made very little of it. The Chancellor of the Exchequer was determined to give nothing away. Foiled at every turn, Mrs Drummond finally asked Mr <Lloyd-G-eorg«, with delicious inconsequence, " do you intend to put a stop to these tilings hy giving us iihe voie ? '* Mr Herbert Gladstone, the Home Secretary, was less at ease in "fche witness box. He too, hedged at every turn when '" Portia " peppered him with irrelevant but very searching qjuestiolns and the Magistrate - came constantly to ids assistance to -tteiesMi him .Srom the fusillade. Yet with all his caution tihe Home Secretary was fairly caught with regard to some of his past utterances on the general qjuestion of women's suffrage. Mr Gladstone had to own up to some of the things he Jmd said in "wMoh he had Bhown approival of " force majeure " in the fight for the male franchise. He could scarcely help himself in the circumstances, for ' Le was confronted with his own speeches. Waving her sheaf of papers in token of victory, Miss Pankjh,urst virtually claimed that in these speeches she and her comrades had received encouragement to do the very ttdngs for which they were being prosecuted.