Suffragette Insanity.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIX, Issue 4, 22 January 1913, Page 60

Suffragette Insanity.

The peculiarly exasperating Suffragette post-box campaign is still being carried on with undiminished zeal, and thus far not a single arrest seems to have been made either in London or the provinces. In spite of police and post office precautions pillar boxes and other receptacles for postal packets are being attacked daily in all parts of the country, and the effects of the destruction and mutilation of their contents ai« becoming painfully patent in mercantile circles. Emboldened by their successes, the Suffragettes are now openly boasting that what they have already done in the way of pillar-box outrages is nothing to what they will do presently. This is being interpreted to mean that these mad-brained harridans are planning a special visitation to take effect

just when the post-boxes will be crammed with Christmas mail matter. It iz alleged that they intend to abandon the treacle, ink, varnish, and similar messy compounds in favour of a new and much more destructive agent—a practically colourlees powder or fluid (it is not certain which), that has incinerating properties of a peculiarly high order. This concoction, whatever it may be composed of, will, it is alleged, utterly destroy the paper contents of any receptacle into which a small quantity is poured, and it is further alleged that under certain circumstances it is. possessed of explosive properties.

Of course, the Suffragettes’ boast’may be “all moonshine,” but seeing what they have accomplished in the matter of postbox mischief, one cannot afford to ignore their threats as mere “idle vapourings.” What these mad-brairs of the “Votea for Women” army hope or expect to gain from the wanton and vicious interference with one of the most important and precious public conveniences is beyond the comprehension of the average person, male ot female. It is just one of those forms of 'terrorism that are bound to defeat their object, for, to the ordinary everyday sort of man or woman it seems that the creature who deliberately places destructive agents in postoffice boxes, is the last person in the work! who should be given a voice in the government of the country. The average man says, “Put them in a lunatic asylum,” bnt the average woman would mete out much harsher treatment.

If they continue their exasperating campaign against the people's poet, there will surely be very unpleasant reprisals attempted presently. Apart from their utterly indefensible attacks on post boxes, the "shrieking sisters” of the Suffrage movement are behaving in ways that invite the strongest 'possible condemnation. A ease in point occurred only a few days ago, when a clergyman who, unfortunately, bore some faint likeness to Mr Lloyd George, was slashed across the face with a dogwhip by a Suffragette, who imagined she bad "treed” the Clianeellor of the Exchequer in disguise. Thia vicious creature has gone to prison in lieu of paying a £lO penalty, but it » to be noted that she has not had even ■the grace to apologise to the unfortunate cleric, whose face will bear witness to the strength of her good right arm for maoiy a day.

It goes all against a decent Englishman’s grain to inflict corporal punishment on a woman, but to-day you may hear highly respectable citizens discussing the advisability of treating poetbox raiders and women guilty of unprovoked assaults such as the one mentioned, to bodily discipline.