 19 June and July 1909 The Ninth Woman's Parliament attempt to insist on the constitutional right of petition as secured by the Bill of Rights, arrest of Mrs. Pankhurst and the Honourable Mrs. Haverfield, Miss Wallace Dunlop and the Hunger Strike, the Fourteen Hunger Strikers and the Punishment Cells, Mr. Gladstone charges Ms. Garnet with having bitten a wardress, her acquittal. When the authorities had first raised the threat of punishing women under the statute 13, Charles II, for proceeding to Parliament in a body of more than 12 persons, with the object of presenting a petition to the Prime Minister, the suffragettes had decided to defy the statute. We were indignant at the proposal to enforce against us in the supposed free and enlightened days of the twentieth century, a coercive law passed in a bygone time of great upheaval and of great tyranny. Moreover, the police authorities had stated that if tried under this statute of Charles II, these suffragette cases must be decided by a judge and jury instead of being hustled through the police court. Deputation after deputation of more than 12 women had therefore gone forth, but though these women had again and again been seized and imprisoned for periods as long as that prescribed by that act, the authorities still did not charge them under the Act of Charles II. At last, as the seriousness of the whole position grew, our committee decided that it would be wise to comply with the very letter of the law and to stand on the constitutional right of the subject to petition the Prime Minister as the seat of power. We were advised that the right of petition, which had been to some extent limited by the Act of Charles II, had existed from time immemorial. It had been confirmed by the Bill of Rights which became law in 1689 at the beginning of the joint reigns of William and Mary as one of the securities for the liberties of the British people, the complete preservation of which had been a condition of the accession of that King and Queen. The Bill of Rights declares that it is the right of the subject to petition the King and all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal. As the power of the King had now for all practical purposes passed into the hands of Parliament, the Prime Minister, as the Chief Parliamentary Official, had become the King's representative and therefore the right to petition the Prime Minister clearly belonged to each and every member of the community. This right, though it should always be zealously guarded, is of course most essential in the case of persons placed outside of the Pale of the Franchise. A ninth woman's parliament having been called, Mrs. Pankhurst wrote to Mr. Asquith stating that a deputation from the woman's parliament would wait upon him at the House of Commons at eight o'clock on the evening of June 29th. She informed him further that the deputation could accept no refusal and must insist upon their constitutional right to be received. The Prime Minister returned a formal refusal to receive them, but the woman proceeded with their arrangements. On Tuesday, June 21st, exactly a week before the day fixed for the woman's parliament, Ms. Wallace Dunlop visited the House of Commons with a gentleman who left her and went on into the lobby to interview a member of Parliament. She passed into St. Stephen's Hall and sitting down on one of the seats there, unfolded a large block covered with printer's ink. She was pressing this block to the stone wall when a policeman rushed up and dragged her hurriedly away, but there remained, displayed upon the wall, the words, women's deputation, June 29th, Bill of Rights. It is the right of the subject to petition the King and all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal. Ms. Wallace Dunlop was taken to the police inspector's office opening out of the palace yard, but after an impression of her notice had been solemnly made on a sheet of blotting paper, she was allowed to go. She had been pulled away too speedily to look at her own handiwork in St. Stephen's Hall, and the policeman told her that it was only a smudge. Two days later, therefore, she set out to make a second attempt to stamp on the wall of St. Stephen's, her reminder to Parliament that the people's liberties must not be violated. She was able to carefully affix her notice before a policeman appeared, but she was not to be let off this time. On June 22nd, she was tried for willfully and maliciously damaging the stonework of the House of Commons. She urged in her defense that any damage which she had caused by affixing the notice was entirely outweighed by the great constitutional issue which had been her intention to impress upon the members of the House of Commons. It is claimed by the prosecution, she said, that it cost ten shillings to erase the impression of the first notice and that it will cost probably a similar sum to wipe out the second. It seems to me that it would have been better if the authorities had spent no money at all but had let the impression stay. She was found guilty in order to pay a fine of five pounds and one pound, one shilling, two pence damages earned default to undergo one month's imprisonment in the third division without hard labor. Meanwhile, very great interest had been aroused in the attempt of the suffragettes to force the Prime Minister to receive them by constitutional means. There was keen discussion as to what would happen and when the fateful Tuesday came, vast throngs of people, greater perhaps than at any other demonstration, lined the streets in the neighborhood of Parliament. In the House of Commons itself there was a strong feeling that the deputation should be received and this was expressed at question time by many members. Mr. Keir Hardy asked the Speaker whether it was by his instructions that a deputation of eight or nine ladies was to be prohibited from entering the House but Mr. Speaker replied that this was the first he had heard of it and that he had issued no instructions. When the same question was put to the Home Secretary he also answered, I gave no instructions and declared that it was the police who had the responsibility of keeping the approaches of the House open. Mr. Hugh Law asked Leave to move the adjournment of the House on a matter of urgent public importance, namely the refusal of the Prime Minister to receive the deputation and the consequent grave and immediate danger to the public piece but the Speaker refused saying that the question had been before the House for at least two years. Mr. Keir Hardy then asked if the Home Secretary would give instructions that so long as the deputation was orderly it should be admitted to St. Stephens but Mr. Gladstone refused to accept responsibility saying, I cannot say what action will be right or wrong for the police to take. At half past seven the Women's Parliament met and a petition to the Prime Minister having been adopted Mrs. Pankhurst, Mrs. Saul Solomon of South Africa, Ms. Nelligan who from 1874 to 1901 had been headmistress of the Croydon Girl School and was now 76 and five other women were duly appointed to present it straight away. Then Ms. Vera Holm was dispatched on horseback with an advance letter announcing the deputation was about to appear. With all possible speed she rode on forging her way through the masses of people until close to the house itself she was met by a body of mounted police who demanded her business. She handed the letter for Mr. Asquith to the Inspector but he merely flung it on the ground where it was lost to sight amongst the crowd. Note 35. Meanwhile, the little deputation of eight women were preparing to leave the Caxton Hall and the Women's Drum and Fife Band ranged up the steps was playing out to them the messiahs. The shrill, shrill notes of the Fife were called to battle. The heart beat quicker in unison with that drumming and the breath game hard and short. On the deputation went was the cheers of their comrades mingled with the deeper answering cheer of the crowd outside. On they went up Victoria Street and all the way from the masses who watched them was heard no single cry against them. Nothing but one great cheer. They pressed on. First Mrs. Pankhurst in her light coat then the two little old ladies and the other woman following behind but just at the corner of St. Margaret's Church a long line of police on horse and foot blocked the road. For a moment there was a strange pause and the crowd was hushed. Then the police lines opened and the deputation passed through to the clear space around the house. The crowd cheered and they were lost to sight. Everyone believed that the woman were to be received. But St. Stevens was closely guarded by police and as the deputation reached it Chief Inspector Scantlebury stepped forward and handed a letter to Mrs. Pankhurst. She opened it and read aloud. The Prime Minister for the reasons which he has already given in a written reply to their requests regrets that he is unable to receive the proposed deputation. Then she let the missive fall to the ground and said, I stand upon my right as a subject of the king to petition the Prime Minister. I am firmly resolved to stand here until I am received. But even whilst she was speaking Inspector Scantlebury turned away. He would not wait to hear her statement. She called to him to stay and pleaded with the bystanders, members of parliament and others to bring him back to listen but he disappeared through the door of the stranger's entrance. Then Mrs. Pankhurst turned to Inspector Jarvis, appealing to him or to anyone to take her message to the Prime Minister but she was merely told to go away. I absolutely refuse, she said, and the other ladies chimed in. We absolutely support Miss Pankhurst. At that was the rows of members of parliament, policemen and newspaper reporters looked on with interest. Inspector Jarvis seized Mrs. Pankhurst by the arm and began to push her away. There was no hope now that the deputation would be received and she well knew that if the women persisted in their demand to enter the house they would be arrested in the end. For the sake of their cause neither she nor they could ever consent voluntarily to retrace their steps. They must refuse to go and when as they would be they were forced rudely back they must return again and again until they could do so no longer because they had been placed under arrest. This would mean a hard and a long struggle for the police would first try every other means to overcome them. She knew that in a moment the violence would begin and that the frail old ladies behind her would be hustled and jostled and thrust ignominiously aside. And so not for herself, for she had borne this sort of thing before, but to save these older women from ill usage she committed a technical assault on Inspector Jarvis striking him lightly on the cheek with her open hand. As she did so he said, I know why you have done that. But one blow was not enough for the police began to seize the other women and the pushing and hustling began. Then she said, must I do it again? And Inspector Jarvis answered, yes. At that she struck him again on the other cheek and he said, take them in and the eight women were placed under arrest and let away. Meanwhile the people outside the police lines had waited patiently until at last the news filtered through that the deputation had not been received. Then suddenly a woman was seen struggling through the crowd bearing the colors. Cheers were raised at the site and the policemen rushed towards her. This was the signal for a general attempt on the part of the suffragettes to reach the House of Commons and in ever-recurring batches of twelve that only too soon were to be torn asunder, the woman bravely but hopelessly pressed on. Whilst more than it had ever done before the crowd showed a disposition to help them and to prevent their arrest. But Parliament went on as though nothing were happening and when a man in the central lobby suddenly shouted, the women of England are clamoring outside. He was at once seized by numbers of bystanders and police and bundled through the door. Then tranquility rained once more. It turned out that the interrupter was Mr. Lawrence Houseman, the well-known writer and artist. At nine o'clock a great force of mounted police cleared the square beating the people back into Victoria Street into Parliament Street across Westminster Bridge or along Millbank. It was a familiar stratagem and as on so many other similar occasions Parliament Square was soon a desert. But now a strange thing happened for little groups of women six or seven at a time kept issuing from no one new wear and making determined rushes for the House. As a matter of fact the WSPU had hired 30 different offices in the square for that night and in these offices women lay concealed and dashed out at pre-concerted moments. Whilst this was happening in the square other suffragettes succeeded in carrying out a time-honored means of showing political contempt by breaking the windows of the official residence of the First Lord of the Admiralty and of the Home Office, the Privy Council Office and the Treasury offices in Whitehall. Having gone just after dusk when the lights are lit in rooms where people are they chose windows on the ground floor that were still dark. Then to small stones around which were wrapped petitions they tied string and holding fast to the end of the string they struck the stones against the windows and having thus made holes dropped them through. So they accomplished their purpose without the risk of injuring anyone. One hundred and eight women were at last taken into custody. Long accounts of the affair appeared in the press next morning and these were on the whole very much more favorable to the women than any that had gone before as the following gleaning from some of the papers indicate. The record of these attempted rates has been one of remarkable persistency in the face of every possible discouragement from the authorities. Daily Telegraph. The same paper also published a humorous pen and ink drawing of a mounted policeman, four constables and an inspector marching off to prison the tiny figure of Miss Nelligan with the inscription, 79 years old, liberal treatment. It is the most successful effort that the militant section of the party have made. However much one may deplore their methods one cannot overlook their earnestness. They are out to win. The Scotsman. Principal and tact alike are wanting in the Asquith administration, otherwise there would have been none of the suffragettes scenes in today's police court and none of the tumult and expensive last night. No one supposes for a moment that such a large and influential body as a suffragettes would have been denied a hearing by Mr. Asquith and his colleagues had it possessed voting power. The Manchester Courier. It is not likely that any one of the thousands of men and women who saw the suffragettes deputation to Mr. Asquith to the House of Commons on Tuesday night will ever forget the scene, much as he or she may wish to do so. There are some things which photograph themselves indelibly on the sensitive plate of the brain and that was one of them. East Anglican Daily Times. The Prime Minister has shockingly mismanaged the business from the beginning. Yorkshire Weekly Post. There is some concern amongst liberals that the Prime Minister's persistent refusal to receive a deputation from the suffragists. They doubt if he is wise in showing so unyielding an attitude to them. Manchester Daily Dispatch. As the deputation of women had complied with the very letter of the law, the WSPU determined to prove if possible that the government had broken the law in refusing to allow them to present their petition. Mr. Henley was retained to deal with the legal aspect of the case and he pressed home his contention with so many forceful arguments that when he had finished Mr. Musket, who was conducting the case for the prosecution, asked to be allowed time to prepare an answer. When the case was continued on Friday, July 9, a sensation was created by the discovery that Lord Robert Cecil had been retained to defend the case of Mrs. Haverfield upon which all the others hung. Mr. Musket now began by suggesting that the women had had no intention of presenting a petition and that the claim that they had gone to the House of Commons in the endeavour to do so was an afterthought got up for the purposes of the defense. He was soon obliged to abandon this line of attack for the speeches and articles of the leaders, the leaflets published by them, and the official letters of the WSPU to Mr. Asquith, together with the fact that each member of the deputation had carried a copy of the petition clearly demonstrated the absurdity of this contention. The whole case has to the right of petition and of the way in which that right should be exercised was then discussed, first by Mr. Musket and then by Lord Robert Cecil. Afterwards, Mrs. Pankhurst quietly told her own story of the happenings on June 29. In conclusion, she said to Sir Albert de Rutzen, I want to say to you here, standing on this dock, that if you deal with us as you have dealt with other women on similar occasions, the same experience will be gone through. We shall refuse to agree to be bound over because we cannot in honour consent to such a course, and we shall go to prison to suffer whatever awaits us there, but in future we shall refuse to conform any longer to the regulations of the prison. There are one hundred eight of us here today, and just as we have thought at our duty to defy the police in the street, so when we get into prison, as we are political prisoners, we shall do our very best to bring back into the 20th century the treatment of political prisoners, which was thought right in the case of William Cobbett and other political offenders of his time. Then, looking rather pained and blinking his eyes very nervously, the aimable-looking elderly magistrate proceeded to give his decision. He said that whilst he agreed with Lord Robert Cecil and Mr. Henley, that the right of petition clearly belonged to every subject, he yet thought that when the police had refused permission to enter the house, and when the Prime Minister had said that he would not receive the deputation, the women had acted wrongly in refusing to go away. He should therefore find them five pounds, and if they refused to pay, should send them to prison for one month in the Second Division. This punishment should not take immediate effect because he understood he was desired to state a case upon the legal point as to the right of petition, and as he was quite prepared to do this, the matter would be taken to a higher court for further consideration. Mrs. Pankhurst then claimed that the charges against every one of her fellow prisoners should be held over until her own case had been finally decided as they all turned on the same point. This was agreed to, except in regard to the 14 women charged with stone throwing and attempted rescue, who on Monday, July 12th, were tried and sent to prison for periods varying from one month to six weeks. And now the evening paper placards were announcing a strange thing that had been taken place in Holloway Jail. Ms. Wallace Dunlop, who had gone alone to prison, had set herself to rest from the government the political treatment which her comrades demanded, and had seized upon a terrible but most powerful means of attaining her object. On arriving in prison on Friday evening, July 2nd, she had at once claimed to be treated as a political offender, and when this had been denied she warned the governor that she would refuse to eat anything until she had gained her point. On Monday morning she put her breakfast aside untasted and addressed a petition to Mr. Gladstone explaining that she had adopted this course as a matter of principle and for the sake of those who might come after. Ms. Wallace Dunlop has not the vigor and reserve force that belonged to youth and she is a fragile constitution, but she never wavered and went cheerfully on with her terrible task. Every effort was made to break down her resolution. The ordinary prison diet was no longer placed before her, but such deity food as at other times is not seen in Holloway, and this was left in her cell both day and night in the hope that she would be tempted to eat, but though her table was always covered, she touched nothing. Tuesday was the day on which she felt most hungry and then, as she says, I threw a fried fish, four slices of bread, three bananas and a cup of hot milk out of the window. Threats and coaxing alike failed to move her. The doctor, watching her growing weakness with concern, came to feel her pulse many times during the day, but her calm, steadfast spirit and gentle gait he never deserted her. She had always a smile for him. What are you going to have for dinner today? He would ask and she would reply, my determination. Indigestible stuff, but tough, no doubt, he would answer. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday passed. By Friday it was clearly realized that she would not change her mind, but would carry on her hunger strike even to the gates of death. Hourly she was growing more feeble, and so on Friday evening, July 9th, she was set free. The fourteen women who had been sentenced on the day of her release and heard the news of what she had done as they were being hurried to jail decided to follow her example. On reaching Holloway, they at once informed the officials that they would refuse to deliver up any of their private property, to undress and to put on the prison clothing, to obey the rule of silence, to perform prison tasks, and to eat the prison food, and that in every way that was open to them they would protest against the regulations. The governor agreed for the time being to allow them to retain their own clothing, but told them that when the visiting magistrates next came round they would be charged before them with mutiny. The women then addressed petitions to the home secretary demanding that, in accordance with international custom, they should receive the treatment due to political prisoners, and decided to wait a day or two for a reply before beginning the hunger strike. These suffragettes had always condemned the inadequate ventilation of the cells which they felt to be exceedingly injurious to the health of every prisoner. On those burning summer days the stifling heat became almost unbearable, and after several times appealing that more fresh air should be allowed to them, the women at last determined to break some of the pains. On Wednesday morning Christabel and Mrs. Tuch, anxious for news of their comrades, went up to Holloway and obtained admittance to a house opposite the jail. There from a back window they called to the prisoners, who eagerly stretched out their arms to them through the broken pains, and in a few shouted words told them of what had taken place. The same afternoon a committee of visiting magistrates arrived in the prison and sentenced the suffragettes to from seven to ten days close solitary confinement. The women were then all dragged away to the punishment cells. Miss Florence Spong, one of the prisoners, describes her experience thus. Entering a dim corridor on either side of which were cells, I was conducted to the last one, and the double iron doors were clanged and locked behind me. The cell damp, icy cold and dark struck terror in me, but the principle for which I was fighting helped me to overcome my fears. In the dim light I discovered a plank bed fixed in one corner of the cell about four inches from the ground with a wooden pillow at the head. Opposite was a tree stump, clamped to the wall for a seat, and in another corner was a small shelf with a filthy rubber tumbler full of water. High above the bed was a small window, and through the tiny pains of opaque glass a faint light filtered. Realizing how quickly the light was waning I hurriedly examined my cell. I discovered two pools of water near the head of the bed which never dried up. There was a small square of glass high above the door, and through this a light of a tiny gas jet flickered from the corridor outside. This was lit at five o'clock and just enabled me to see the objects in my cell. At eight o'clock three wardresses brought me a mattress and some rugs, and again the doors clanged too and I was alone. I will not speak of that night. I leave it for your imagination. At six the next morning I was told to get up. My mattress and bedclothes were taken from my cell, and a tiny bowl of water was brought me to wash in, and that was the only wash I was allowed every 24 hours. It is wrong that there should be such places today, Miss Florence Cook told the governor. They would drive any ordinary prisoner mad. And she tells us, I saw all means of protest had been taken from me except one, and that was to do what Miss Wallace Dunlop had done, to refuse to take any food. The hardest time was the first 24 hours. Milk was brought to me which I felt I could have taken very willingly, but I put it from me. Then the wardress brought me and some food. I said to her, would you please take that out? She refused. I therefore took the tin in which the food was and rolled it out of the cell and what was in it went upon the ground. This is important because Mr. Gladstone afterwards charged the suffragettes with having thrown food at the wardresses. Miss Cook goes on. I was particularly careful in what I did to be polite and I believe all the other suffragettes were the same. On Friday I took to my bed and the doctor told me that if I persisted I should get a fever, but I was absolutely determined to do my part at whatever sacrifice and I told the governor that so long as I was responsible for my action I should refuse to take food. On Sunday night I was removed to the hospital and there a fresh effort was made to get me to take food. Medicine was brought to me which I absolutely refused knowing that it was either food in disguise or else intended to aggravate my hunger. On Monday afternoon my head felt exceedingly bad and I hardly knew what I was doing but I determined that I would not give in. In the evening the governor came to me and said, be very calm. I said to him, there is a supreme power which gives us strength to bear whatever comes to us. He said, I have orders to release you and I said to him, does Mr. Gladstone prefer this to doing us justice? The other prisoners all told similar stories each of which unconsciously displayed the most wonderful heroism. One day Miss Mary Allen fell fainting on the stone floor of her punishment cell and when weakened numb with cold she regained consciousness she sang the woman's Mercedes to cheer herself and to her delight the occupant of the next cell joined in. So bravely struggling each of the women won her way out to freedom having fasted bravely some for six and a half others for six, five and a half or five days. Think of the courage of it to be confined there in semi-darkness when a word would procure release, to withstand the terrible pangs of hunger with food always before one's eyes distracted by the fever of that unhealthy and fetid place, to feel oneself growing gradually weaker and weaker and to know that but a little more, perhaps suddenly, any moment without warning in the heart will stop, and yet never, never to falter always to cling on to the word of their faith and the great impersonal ideal. Think of the wonderful courage of it and after their release it was only with utmost care and cherishing that these dear women were won back to life and in their feeble weariness they felt even when lying on the softest bed as though they were stretched upon iron bars. There were some generous souls, the Reverend Hugh Chapman of the Royal Chapel of the Savoy and others who raised their voices in protest and in appeal to the authorities to withdraw their obstinate opposition to the cause for which the women fought or at least to extend to them the recognized usages of political warfare. It was shown that even according to the strict letter of the law the women, their stone-throwing knot was standing, had an unassailable claim to political treatment. In the case of Enri Castioni reported in Pitt Cobbett's Leading Cases on International Law, a Swiss subject named Castioni had been arrested in England at the requisition of the Swiss government on a charge of murder. Under the provisions of the Extradition Act of 1870 the prisoner could not be extradited if the offense was of a political character and the judges unanimously held that even such offenses as murder and assassination must be considered political if committed in the belief that they would promote the political end in view and as part of and incidental too a genuine political agitation rising or disturbance. But the legal and moral justice of their claim and the heroic courage of the women were alike disregarded by the government and when on July 21st private members of parliament pressed Mr. Gladstone to relent and to do justice to the women political prisoners he retaliated by asserting that they had both kicked and bitten the wardresses. The charge was indignantly repudiated by every prisoner and after careful inquiry the WSBU issued a statement denying the accusations. Three days later it was announced by the press that Mr. Gladstone had held an inquiry at the prison as a result of which he had decided that the allegations of assault against the suffragette prisoners had been clearly proved. The WSBU then wrote urging that the case ought not to be judged on one sided evidence and claiming that the home secretary should allow the 14 suffragettes against whom the charges had been made to put their side of the matter before him. Mr. Gladstone merely replied that he had already directed proceedings to be taken against Mr. Teresa Garnett and Mrs. Dove Wilcox two of these suffragettes concerned and that these proceedings would afford full opportunity for them to swear to their version of the facts before the court. On August 4th these trumped up charges were heard at the North London Police Court. During the whole course of the agitation the suffragettes had never sought either to conceal or to deny what they had done or to escape punishment for their actions and the police had always readily admitted that they could unhesitatingly accept the word of a suffragette. It is unnecessary therefore to give at any length the evidence put forward at the trial of these two women. Their own statements calmly and carefully given even the magistrate although he punished them certainly believed. Mr. Teresa Garnett was accused of biting one more dress and striking another. In defending herself against these charges she said. On Wednesday July 14th wardresses entered my cell and ordered me to come down to see the visiting magistrates. I stopped to pick up my bag to bring with me. Note 36. Immediately the wardresses intervened between me and my bag to prevent me taking it and a scuffle ensued in the course of which I found myself on my back and two or three other wardresses came into my cell. In this struggle I did not strike or bite or assault any of the wardresses in any way but used such force as I was able to put forth in order to regain possession of my property. One of the wardresses tore my dress and it is quite likely that as I took hold of her her dress became torn. I was then conducted to the head of the stairs and seeing that further attempts to retain my property would be of no avail I walked quietly down into the magistrates room. When I was there the charges of breach of prison discipline were made against me and the matron further charged me with having torn the dress of one of the wardresses whilst I was being brought into the room but no charge of biting the finger of their wardress was made against me. I was then asked whether I had any apology to make. I was sentenced to eight days solitary confinement and I made no resistance as I was marched away to a punishment cell. Since I learned that this charge was to be brought against me I have been wondering how it could have arisen. I do not believe that the wardresses would purposely fabricate a charge against me. I am led therefore to suppose that this charge rests upon a mistake. You will have noticed sir that no charge of biting the wardresses finger was preferred against me in the presence of the visiting magistrates whilst a charge of tearing the wardresses dress which occurred at the same time that my other act is alleged to have happened was reported to them then and there. I can only suppose therefore that this charge was an afterthought and that finding a wound on her finger the wardress concluded that it had been produced by a bite. Now sir I have dressed myself today exactly in the way which I was dressed that day in Holloway and you will notice that I am wearing this sport-colored brooch on my left side. At this Ms. Garnette unbuttoned and took off the coat she was wearing and the magistrate rudely said, I suppose you could bite as well in one dress as in another. I have already told you that my dress was torn, she went on. You will see that it is torn close to the brooch. I think it is exceedingly probable that the wardress who tore my dress received a wound in her finger from the brooch I was wearing and this wound would exactly resemble the wound caused by a bite. Ms. Garnette now unpinned the sport-colored brooch which since April of that year had been presented as a badge of honor to every member of the W.S.P.U. who had suffered imprisonment for the cause and which like a genuine sport-colored had five sharp little tooth-like projections at its base. Here is the brooch she said handing it to the magistrate. You can look at it for yourself. I have only this to add if, in spite of the true facts which I have narrated to you, you send me to prison on account of the charges which have been made against me, I shall go there prepared to carry out afresh my protest against the treatment in prison. Mr. Fordham said that evidently there had been a great struggle and that at such times it was difficult to say exactly what had taken place. He believed that the wound had been caused accidentally, though he thought it was more likely that the wardress's hand had been struck against Ms. Garnette's teeth than that the wound had been caused by the brooch. He therefore dismissed the case but though Ms. Garnette had been acquitted of this charge, Mr. Gladstone never retracted the statements which he had made in Parliament as to the suffragette prisoners having bitten the wardresses. As soon as this first case against Ms. Garnette had been disposed of a second charge of striking one of the wardresses was preferred against her. She then said On the day following that on which the visiting magistrates came to Holloway the wardress entered my cell and ordered me to get up off the bed. I did not do so and she seized hold of the bedding and rolled me onto the floor injuring my knee. I then said to her is this what you do? And she said it is. I said to her in a civilized country and she said you are a set of uncivilized women. I then asked her to leave the cell and she refused to do so whereon I pushed her without using any unnecessary violence out of the cell. Later in the day she was exceedingly insolent to me in her behavior and she further reported me to the governor and I was moved into a more severe punishment cell. I informed the governor of the manner in which she had treated me and from that time onwards her behavior was marked by ordinary courtesy. Mr. Fordham then sentenced Ms. Garnette to a months imprisonment in the third division. After this two charges were also brought against Mrs. Dove Wilcox of Bristol who was accused of having kicked several of the wardresses both while she was being taken from the cell to the visiting magistrate's room and on the way to the punishment cell afterwards. To the first charge she returned an absolute denial saying that when summoned to appear before the magistrate she had gone quietly and willingly and that when she had been charged before them no attempt had been made to suggest that she had assaulted any of the wardresses. She was sentenced to eight days close confinement in a punishment cell but as she explained I refused to accept this treatment and said that if they insisted I should have to be dragged away by force. Several wardresses accordingly seized me to take me away. I offered such resistance as I was able to but was overpowered. Outside the room some of the wardresses commenced to pummel me very severely inflicting serious bruises upon me and at last I deliberately kicked two of them. I had on a pair of thin house shoes at the time because as you know we had insisted upon our right to retain our own clothing so that I could not have hurt either of them very much. They then picked me up and carried me to the cell and on the way treated me very cruelly twisting my arms almost throttling me and tearing at my hair with great violence. I remonstrated with them saying you have no right to treat me in this way and I shall complain to the governor of this cruelty. They carried me into the cell and threw me roughly onto the wooden bed taking away my shoes which they did not return for some time. At first I determined to complain to the governor and to show him the bruises on my arms but on consideration I remembered that my quarrel was with the government and not with the wardresses. I did not wish them to get into trouble. Moreover I regarded the incident as closed as I heard nothing of any complaint as to my action. I consider I was perfectly justified in what I did and that anyone with arms pinioned assaulted as I was would have taken similar action. The magistrate refused to accept Mrs. Dove Wilcox's denial of the charge of kicking the wardresses on her way to the visiting magistrates room but said that it was not of a very serious kind that he would sentence her to pay a fine of forty shillings or go to prison for ten days. He also found her guilty of the second charge of kicking the wardresses on being removed from the visiting magistrates room and sentenced her to pay a further forty shillings or to go to prison for ten days. If she suffered imprisonment the two terms were to run concurrently that is to say she would serve ten days in all. As she had already stated that she would not pay any fine this was tantamount to punishing her for one of the charges only. The two women were still weak from their first hunger strike but they determined to again make the same stand. On their arrival at Holloway the officials forcibly stripped their clothes from their backs flung the prison garments upon them and forced them into the punishment cells where in spite of the continual fateness from which they suffered they steadfastly refused all food until Saturday August 7th the third day of their imprisonment when the order of release was brought. Footnotes 35 It was afterwards brought back to Clementson by a stranger who found it still unopened 36 In this bag Miss Garnette had a change of clothing and other necessaries and she realized that if this were taken from her her determination not to wear the prison garments would be frustrated. End of Chapter 19 Chapter 20 of The Suffragette the history of the woman's militant suffrage movement by E. Sylvia Pankhurst this LibreVox recording is in the public domain. 20 July to September 1909 Mr. Lloyd George at Limehouse twelve women sent to prison another strike Hunger Strikers in Exeter Jail the scenes at Canford Park and Rushpool Hall Mrs. Lee on the roof at Liverpool Liverpool Hunger Strikers Manchester Hunger Strikers Lester Hunger Strikers Dundee Hunger Strikers The Cleveland by-election The vindictive attitude of the government and the sufferings and heroism of the women in prison spurred on their comrades outside to deeds of renewed bravery and daring. Everywhere vast throngs of people supported the suffragettes in their protests and no precautions however great or barricades however high and strong could keep the woman's voices out. Shame on you Mr. Ask Withth they cried as he was unveiling a statue in the embankment gardens. Shame on you for putting women in dark cells instead of treating them as political prisoners. Why don't you give us the vote and end it? Ladies and gentlemen thoughtlessly began Mr. Gladstone at a reading meeting from which all women had been excluded and when there were shouts of where are they? He answered not far off anyway. He was right for soon their speeches delivered at a meeting in the street outside were to be heard within competing dangerously with his own. When on July 15th Mr. Lewis Harcourt was speaking at the Cooperative Hall Lee Lancashire the suffragettes rushed towards the doors. Thousands of people cheered them on crying We will help you to get inside and though the police arrested Miss Florence Clarkson of Manchester Mrs. Baines and three other women all but the first were rescued by the crowd. On July 17th Adela Panker has held a great meeting outside Mr. Winston Churchill's meeting in Edinburgh and afterwards amid the enthusiastic plaudits of the crowd she and Bessie Brand made a dash for the doors followed and supported by hundreds of men and women. Note 37 They were arrested by detectives in plain clothes and taken to the police station whilst cheering men raised their hats and women waved their scarves and handkerchiefs. A second charge led by Miss Eckford of Edinburgh was beaten back by mounted police and when Mr. Churchill emerged he was greeted with a storm of groans. Those who had been arrested were released after the meeting. Numbers of men most of them members of the men's political union were now also coming forward to demand justice for women at the meetings from which the women were excluded. If they had gone there to heckle cabinet ministers on any other question nothing very much would have happened but now most terrible violence was turned upon them. At Mr. Herbert Samuel's meeting in the Corn Exchange Bedford on the 22nd July four men undertook to make the protest. At the first sound of the word women two whole rows of seats were overturned and the interrupter was immediately rushed out whilst Mr. Samuel remarked with a sneer that he was interested to meet a suffragist of the male persuasion but that he suspected the interrupter of being a conservative hireling. The second man rose up and cried I am a liberal and I protest but the stewards at once set upon him and he was thrown through a door at the back of the platform and fell some six or seven feet to the ground floor where he lay insensible for nearly half an hour. Two other men one of them a retired naval officer met with a similar fate. At the same time four of the women who were holding a meeting outside the hall were arrested and kept at the police station until Mr. Samuel had left the town. When the same cabinet minister spoke at Nottingham the police again arrested and subsequently released four women one of whom was Miss Watts the daughter of a well-known local clergyman. A like procedure was adopted in numberless cases afterwards. Inside the hall an unexpected protest was made by Mr. C. L. Rothera the city coroner for Nottingham and a prominent liberal but in spite of the fact that he was one of the most familiar and respected figures in the town he narrowly escaped ejection. At Northampton Mr. Samuel again encountered the women for a plucky little band led by Miss Marie Brackenberry attempted to rush the strong iron gates of the hall. They were flung back by the police but nothing daunted Miss Brackenberry climbed to the top of a 40-foot scaffolding adjoining the exchange and though the rain poured continuously addressed the crowd from that great height but the most extraordinary scenes were perhaps those that took place when Mr. Lloyd George and Mr. Sidney Buxton spoke at Limehouse on July 30th. Some twenty men were there determined to see that the women's car should not be overlooked and as soon as the singing of for he's a jolly good fellow which heralded Mr. Lloyd George's appearance on the platform had died away a man was seen climbing up one of the pillars at the back of the hall. Having mounted some fifteen feet from the ground he uncoiled a rope from around his waist contriving a sort of swing seat for himself and unfurling a purple white and green flag hung there above the meeting. Numbers of stewards at once rushed from every direction to haul him down but more than a dozen of his friends had already gathered around the pillar. Instead of beginning their speeches the cabinet ministers sat whispering together. Then one of them went across to Mrs. Lloyd George and a companion and immediately these two the only women present left the meeting and their struggle began. Gradually the defenders of the pillar were wrenched from their posts. An eyewitness declared that he saw one man frog marched out by half a dozen stewards between two rows of infuriated black guards who were raining blows with their fists on his defenseless face. A gentleman quite unconnected with a suffrages man who had taken no part in the struggle protested against this excessive and cowardly violence but was at once set upon and himself flung outside. One man home from the colonies had his shoulder fractured another had one wrist broken and the other sprained. Another received black eyes and a broken nose whilst a Cambridge undergraduate had his collar bone broken and a dozen other men needed medical attendance one fainting through loss of blood some time after he had been ejected. At last the stewards reached the pillar the rope was cut and the man aloft with the flag was hauled down and set upon by the mob of stewards who tumbled over each other in the attempt to kick and strike at him. One man deliberately hit him over the face with a glass bottle. When finally he was thrown outside the police carried him to a doctor. Now the cabinet ministers proceeded with their speeches but when Mr. Lloyd George began to speak of the people's will there came a megaphone chorus from a little workman's dwelling close to the hall where the suffragettes were lying concealed votes for women votes for women votes for women The stewards rushed to the windows on that side of the hall and shut them hurriedly but the sound penetrated still for the people of the neighborhood joined in and supported the megaphones with cheers and cries of stick to it miss stick to it Even this was not all for a desperate charge was being led against the police cordon that guarded the doors of the hall and in this struggle 13 women were placed these women were summoned to appear before Mr. Dickinson at the Tams Police Court on the following morning when they were charged with obstruction and as a result 12 of them were taken on to Holloway for terms varying from 10 days to two months They were all determined to protest as those who had gone before them had done against the prison treatment and when ordered to undress and to proceed to the cells they refused and linking arms stood with their backs to the wall The governor then blew his whistle and a great crowd of wardresses appeared They fell upon the women and after a long struggle dragged them apart forced them into the cells and ordered them to change into prison clothes Worn out as they now were with vain resistance they still bravely refused to give in and their clothes were literally torn from their backs Who would not shrink from such an ordeal? Who would not rather huddle quietly into the prison clothes however ill-fitting course and objectionable they might be then be subjected to such a thing as this well knowing that whatever happened one must be overpowered in the end and these women did shrink from the ordeal but bore it for all their shrinking A long file of wardresses fairly ripped my clothes off leaving me only half covered says Lucy Burns I counted twelve wardresses in my cell they tried to taunt and goad me says Mabel Kapper but I bit my lips When the prison clothes had been forced onto them or they had been left half covered with the garments lying beside them to put them on as best they might even then they went on bravely with their protest the ventilation of their cells was inadequate it was their duty to break the pains and though they well knew that as a consequence they would be taken where the want of air was even greater and where they could not break the glass not one of the twelve shrank back the windows were scarcely broken when vengeance followed they were dragged away to the punishment cells and in these unwholesome dungeons they carried out the hunger strike some of them under conditions even worse than those born by their previously imprisoned comrades in some of the punishment cells including that of mrs. lee a sanitary convenience in appearance exactly like an ordinary closet without a lid was fixed against the wall there was no water supply for keeping this clear the inner vessel being withdrawn through the wall from the corridor outside when it required emptying when it is realized that the prisoner remained in the cell both night and day without a moment's intermission and that the ventilation was in any case absolutely inadequate the objectionable character of this arrangement will be clearly understood when the matter was made public and commented upon afterwards mr. gladstone stated that this closet was only put there in case of emergency and that in every case the prisoner would be readily allowed to go to the wc in the corridor on ringing her bell unfortunately none of these suffragettes who had been placed in the cells in which these closets were had tested the matter but those who are familiar with the Holloway regime will for various reasons doubt the truth of this statement though mr. gladstone probably believed it when a prisoner is told that she will not be allowed to leave her cell at all for several days and instead of being sent each morning to fetch her own washing water as is usual she has it brought to her by a wardress when at the same time she finds a sanitary convenience in her cell and the usual cry of lavatory is omitted she naturally concludes that the receptacle is there for her use and that she will not be permitted to use any other anyone who has asked questions in holloway where questions are discouraged knows that especially if the prisoner were under punishment questions upon this point would probably not receive either polite or pleasant replies for two nights mrs. baker and mrs. lee were denied even a mattress and were obliged to sleep on the hard wooden plank the long sleepless nights were for all the prisoners the hardest part of the trial as they grew weaker their minds as happens to people during illness were often failed with which could only with difficulty be subdued they feared that they might walk in their sleep and eat the food which was always left in their cells during the night threats to feed them forcibly were constantly being made and the horror of being suddenly overpowered was always upon them lucy burn tells how once in the night she heard a sudden scream that cannot be one of our women she thought it is too incoherent but holding her breath she listened with quickly beating heart the cry came again and again and at last she heard quite plainly no no take it away then she leapt from her bed and stood at the door hour after hour waiting for what might come until at last worn out and stiff with cold she wrapped herself in her blanket and fell asleep with her head against the door Saturday evening Sunday Monday Tuesday past on Wednesday the visiting magistrates came round the prisoners whom they had come to punish were now all weak and haggard and some were unable to rise from their beds nevertheless further sentences of close confinement in the punishment cells which they had never yet left were passed upon them all but the authorities dared not attempt to carry out these sentences the chances of life and death had become too evenly balanced now and Mrs. Baker and Mrs. Lee were set free that evening and the remainder of the women on Thursday and Friday August 5th and 6th Meanwhile three young suffragettes Vera Wentworth Mary Phillips and Rose Howie had gone through the hunger strike in Exeter having been arrested in that town on Friday July 30th whilst leading a crowd of 2,000 people to the doors of Lord Carrington's budget meeting in the Victoria Hall there their arrest had excited great popular indignation and with shouts up let them go you cowards the people had rushed to their rescue but the soldiery had been called out to beat them back suffering born for a cause begets sympathy with that cause and coercion arouses sympathy with the coerced Nevertheless tyranny and cruelty beget their like a crowd however hostile will hesitate to throw the first tone but when that has been flung many missiles will often follow Thus when it was shown that rather than do them justice the government was prepared to thrust women into unwholesome dungeons and to leave them to starve there for many days a more brutal and vindictive temper began to manifest itself amongst the more disorderly sections of its supporters then had ever before been shown On August 2nd a great liberal fate was held at Canford Park near Pool in Dorseture There were sports and games and Mr. Churchill was to deliver an address on the budget Annie Kenney with three companions attended the fate and the story of what took place is best told in her own words She says As we entered the park together we saw two very young girls being dragged about by a crowd of liberal men some of whom were old enough to be their fathers they had thrown over them and had pulled down their hair We heard afterwards that these girls came from a village nearby but the liberal suspected them to be suffragettes and ordered them out of the park Before Ms. Brackenberry and I had been in the place many minutes though we had never opened our lips we were followed by a howling mob of liberal men We thought we would get away from them if we went and watched the sports instead of going direct to Mr. Churchill's meeting but they crowded round us and the language they used is not fit for print After a time a police officer came up and told us that we must clear out of the place as we were causing all the trouble though we had never replied back to anything that had been said As soon as the crowd saw the police were against us the trouble began There seemed to be thousands of them surging around us and they divided Ms. Brackenberry and myself which she tried to keep me in view as much as she could They did not seem to want to do anything to her because she looks strong and big but they all came and attacked me They were calling out to each other to get hold of me and throw me into the pond which was very near I shall never forget at this point seeing a carriage in which were two old ladies come driving up The carriage was almost turned over and the two women were white with fright and breathing very quickly but though I appealed to the men on behalf of the two ladies they took no notice Luckily the crowd just swerved around the corner and I considered the lies of the two women were saved not through good management or through any feeling on the part of the liberals but it was just a piece of luck After that they seemed to become more enraged I then turned and faced the crowd and strange to say when I could turn round and face them they never attempted to do anything to me but as soon as my back was turned they started dragging me about in a most shameful way One man who was wearing the liberal colors pulled a knife out of his pocket and to the delight of the other staunch liberals started cutting my coat They cut it into shreds right from the neck downwards Then they lifted up my coat and started to cut my frock and one of them lifted up my frock and cut my petty coat This caused great excitement A cry came from those liberals who are supposed to have high ideas in public life to undress me They took off my hat and pulled down my hair but I turned round upon them and said that it would be their shame and not mine They stopped then for a minute and then two men also wearing the liberal colors got hauled of me and lifted me up and afterwards dragged me along not giving me an opportunity to walk out in a decent way So they dragged her out the little fragile woman with her torn garments and her masses of golden hair falling below her waist her sensitive face flushed and her blue eyes wide with pain and horror They dragged her clothes past the house of the great wind-borne family who owned Canford Park but though the guests and members of the family who were watching from the balcony and from the lawn in front and saw the great gates opened and the little ragged exhausted figure with her streaming hair thrust outside well knowing that the nearest railway station was more than three miles away Truly it needed some courage to face things like this for the sake of any cause and this was not an isolated happening On August 8th Miss Helen Tolson had a similar experience at Rushpool Hall Saltburn by the sea This is her own description The day was beautiful and the private grounds in which Mr. Churchill and Mr. Samuel were to speak were thronged with a great crowd of their supporters a large number of whom were minors About ten of us had obtained admission in one way or another and had stationed ourselves at different points As each woman spoke there was a great roar from the crowd who nearly all left the speaker to follow and ill-tweet her as she was being taken out When my own turn came I started to ask a question but was stopped by the hand of a liberal steward which was thrust into my mouth The next thing I remember is two stewards holding my arms and a third coming up and deliberately kicking me in the body This was a sign to the crowd to do what they liked with me and they thrust me forward with cries of throw her in the pond They dragged me to a steep bank above the pond and hear three men seeing that my hold upon a small tree was giving way tried to help me Nothing of what happened during the next ten minutes is at all clear in my memory I was often full length on the ground and I know I was bruised from head to foot The crowd abated their efforts to trample me under foot when the word was passed that the police were at last coming When I was pulled up the bank again I found that my skirt and underclothing had been nearly torn off A Miss Delay daughter of Dr. Delay of Cotum a guest at Rushpool Hall quite unconnected with the suffragette was set upon by one man who pushed her into some bushes and blew tobacco smoke into her face She afterwards brought an action for assault against her assailant and he was fine three pounds His defense was that she had cried cowards to those who were ejecting the suffragettes and had thus angered the crowd so that if he had not seized her she would probably have been swept into a pond On August 20th when Lord Cruz spoke at the great St. Andrews Hall Glasgow Miss Alice Paul succeeded in climbing to the roof and in the hope of being able to speak to the cabinet minister from this point she lay there concealed for many hours in spite of a downpour of rain When she was discovered and forced to descend she was heartily cheered for her plucked by a crowd of workmen one of whom came forward and apologized for having told a policeman of her presence saying that he had thought she was in need of help Later when the women attempted to force their way into the building the people needed no urging to lend their aid and the police who were guarding the entrance were obliged to use their trunchens to beat them back When the officers of the law attempted to make arrests the women were rescued from their clutches again and again Eventually Adela Pankhurst Lucy Burns Alice Paul and Margaret Smith were taken into custody but even when the gates of the police station were closed upon them the authorities feared that they would not be able to hold their prisoners for the crowd shouted vociferously for their release and twisted the strong iron gates It was only when the women themselves appealed to them that they consented to refrain from further violence When Lord Crue had safely left the town the friends of the women were allowed to bail them out on the understanding that they would appear at the police court at nine o'clock the following morning Nevertheless though they arrived before the appointed time there was no one to show them the courtroom and whilst they wandered about in the passages trying to find their way their case was disposed of behind locked doors and with the public excluded The bail was as cheated and a warrant was issued for their arrest before five minutes past nine At this Mr. Thomas Kerr one of the Baileys rose to protest and asked two minutes leave to find the defaulting prisoners saying that he was sure they were already in the building but he was abruptly told that the court was closed He went outside and immediately met the ladies and brought them in before Bailey Hunter who presided had left the bench but though the Baileys saw them he hurried away whilst the fiscal tried to put all the blame upon him Note 38 The bail was never refunded and the women never answered to the warrants and so the matter dropped Friday August 20th on which Lord Crue had spoken at Glasgow Mr. Haldane the Secretary of State for War was addressing a meeting at Liverpool and Mrs. Lee who was in command of the suffragette army there had organized her forces in such a way as to give an effective reply to his jeering reference to what he described as the botkin tactics Early in the day she and a number of others had taken up their quarters in an empty house separated from the hall by a narrow passage only When the meeting began she clambered through the window and swung herself onto the roof with the most extraordinary agility at so great a height and with so slender a foothold that observers were thrilled with horror A loud clear woman's voice calling attention to the woman's demand through a megaphone and then crash after crash That was what the people in the hall knew of the scene whilst outside great crowds were surging and those who looked up could see what the Liverpool courier called the frail figure of a little woman peeping out from behind a chimney stack who as her comrades at the windows passed ammunition up to her hurled it onto the roof of the hall with a dexterity which was nothing short of marvelous When everything that they had brought with them had been exhausted she tore the slates up from the roof and flung them after the rest The police rushed to the scene and pressed a passing window cleaner into the service but his ladder was too short and the fire escape had to be sent for before Mrs. Lee could be brought down Then she and her six comrades were driven away in Black Maria to the Central Bridewell and having been allowed out on bail at a late hour were brought up the following morning at the Liverpool police court charged with doing willful damage to the Sun Hall They were remanded until the following Tuesday August 24th but refused to find bail and were detained in prison where on being expected to conform to the ordinary rules they began the hunger strike and were placed in the punishment cells They had already fasted three and a half days when their trial took place It was stated in the court that no one had been hurt by their action on the night of the Sun Hall meeting but that damage had been done to the extent of three pounds nineteen shillings Sentences of from one to two months imprisonment in the second division having been passed upon them they were taken back to the punishment cells where owing to the cold and damp many of them were stricken with shivering fits The order of release came for Ms. Helius on the following day and for the six others on Thursday evening During the summer months Mr. Asquith had been golfing at globally in three of the younger suffragettes Girls of between 20 and 25 had approached him in the midst of his game and had told him pretty forcibly what they thought of him and his government On the first Saturday in September the same girls Jesse Kenny Vera Wentworth and Elsie Howie visited Little Stone on Sea where Mr. Asquith and Mr. Gladstone were playing golf together They caught sight of Mr. Asquith as he was leaving the clubhouse and Elsie Howie made a dash towards him He tried to run back into the house but was caught just as he reached the topmost step As soon as he felt the girls touch on his arm he cried out I shall have you locked up But she replied I don't care what you do Mr. Asquith and as Jesse and Vera also appeared he called for help and Mr. Herbert Gladstone came to his aid The two men tried to push the three girls down the steps but this was not easily accomplished As Jesse said there were blows received from both parties and plenty of jostling Mr. Gladstone fought like a prize fighter and struck out left and right I must say he is a better fighter than he is a politician These suffragettes have often been called hooligans but the two cabinet ministers certainly showed that they too could be hooligans when no one was looking At last two other men came to reinforce the cabinet ministers and the girls were all three knocked down in a heap The two ministers then made good their escape and Mr. Gladstone motored to Hyath police station and arranged with the superintendent to the county police for a body of constables to be sent to guard Limpney Castle where he was staying Of course the suffragettes were severely condemned for having annoyed the cabinet ministers on their holiday and the escapade of these three girls was described as an outrage but nevertheless many jokes were made on the subject at Mr. Asquith's expense Several detailed accounts of his playing golf with an escort of upwards of six policemen some of which he took the trouble to deny appeared in the press On Saturday, September 4th whilst Mr. Asquith was being waylaid at Limpney scenes in which there was a curious mingling of grave and gay were taking place in Manchester where Mr. Burl was addressing a budget demonstration at the White City The platform from which he was to speak and all the neighboring roofs had been carefully searched for suffragettes and with 200 stewards and 50 policemen in the hall it was thus hoped that they would be excluded but the women entered the American cakewalk show which adjoined the concert hall where the meeting was taking place on the one side and the American dragon slide which came next to it on the other and from these two points they threw small missiles through the glass windows and succeeded in making their voices heard it was impossible to arrest the suffragettes who were on the cakewalk machine without cakewalking also and when a policeman mounted the machine in order to affect their capture he found to the great amusement of the onlookers that he had got on to the wrong platform and so was forced to play his part in what the Liverpool courier described as a spectacle which from the point of its ludicrousness must stand unparalleled in the annals of police adventure for as he was obliged to cakewalk forward so the offending women were compelled to cakewalk backwards but if as is possible the suffragettes and company with the rest of the public found the spectacle amusing their fun was soon at an end for on Monday they were sentenced to from one to two months imprisonment in the second division note 39 at strange ways jail terrible punishments were meted out to them on the refusal to obey the rules but these punishments were tempered by kindly acts on the part of many members of the staff some of the women were sentenced not only to close solitary confinement but to wear handcuffs for 24 hours and one of them tells that when after a sleepless night the matron took pity on her and ordered the handcuffs to be removed she nearly fainted with pain whilst the wardress worked her arms to restore the circulation to another prisoner who refused to wear the prison clothes was brought a strange unclean leather and canvas jacket with straps and buckles attached into this she was forced and locked but somehow or other she managed to wriggle out all but one arm and the matron then appeared and ordered that the remaining strap should be unlocked these Manchester prisoners were all released on Wednesday the 8th September after a four days fast on the same day were released six women who had been arrested in Leicester on the previous Saturday for holding a meeting of protests outside that addressed by Mr. Winston Churchill in the Palace Theatre they also had carried out the hunger strike in Dundee at three o'clock on the morning of Monday September 13th Miss Isabelle Kelly clad in gymnastic dress was climbing a high scaffolding erected on the bank of Scotland from which in the darkness she let herself down some 25 feet onto the roof of the canared hall where Mr. Herbert Samuel was to hold a meeting the next night there she lay concealed for 17 hours until the meeting began then by means of a strong rope about 24 feet in length at one end of which was an iron hook which she attached to the roof and at the other a running noose she entered the building by a skylight and found herself on the stairs leading to the gallery of the hall she was able to rush in but before a word had passed her lips she was seized by the stewards handed over to the police and driven off in custody Meanwhile other suffragettes were leading a great charge of people to the door of the hall but they too were arrested this was the second time that women had been arrested in Scotland in connection with cabinet ministers meetings in Glasgow as we have seen the officials had just cheated the bail and allowed the prosecution to fall to the ground here in Dundee Miss Kelly and Miss Fraser Smith who had also succeeded in getting into the hall were released whilst the woman who had been arrested outside were sent to prison from 10 to 7 days in default of paying fines varying from 5 to 3 pounds they all refused to obey the prison rules and carried out the hunger strike and were released on Friday the 17th of September at 10.30pm after having gone without food since the time of their arrest on the Monday as soon as it had been announced that Mrs. Pankhurst and those arrested with her were to go free until after their case had been discussed by the High Court she had made her way to Cleveland in Yorkshire where a by-election was taking place owing to Mr. Herbert Samuel's elevation to the cabinet as Postmaster General Mr. Samuel had hitherto acted as Undersecretary at the Home Office the governmental department which was responsible for the treatment of the suffragettes in prison Mr. Samuel began by scoffing at the opposition of the suffragettes referring to them as wild women from Westminster but the people of Cleveland soon became ardent supporters of the woman's cause and flocked eagerly to their meetings he then bound it necessary to devote large parts of his speeches to combating the suffragette arguments he declared that it was a wicked calumny to say that the government had sent women to prison for asking for votes and especially disassociated himself from any part in the responsibility at one moment he stated that Mr. Askwith had already promised to give women the vote and at another that the present parliament could not do it and again and again he accused the women of fighting with Tory Gold all this betrayed his fear that the women were turning votes even the times that anti-suffragist newspaper which had always condemned the suffragette tactics and minimized the effect of their work acknowledged now that their attack was damaging the government candidates chances and on July 6th the special correspondent of this paper wrote the women suffragists have made a favorable impression upon the electorate and the miners especially appear to have been thoroughly converted by the new propaganda some miners with whom I have talked would even vote for the candidate who was in favour of women's suffrage without respect to his opinions upon other subjects to put it more emphatically a women's suffrage candidate pure and simple as a third candidate would probably have endangered Mr. Samuel's reelection quite as much as a candidate of the Labour Party finally on the eve of the poll Mr. Herbert Samuel found it necessary to draw up a special leaflet against the women the only one on any subject which was sent out in a similar way the result of the contest was as the Liberals admitted disappointing from their point of view for although Mr. Samuel was returned in spite of his added prestige as a cabinet minister his majority was enormously decreased the figures were Mr. H Samuel Liberal 6296 Mr. Winsor Lewis Conservative 5325 Liberal Majority 971 at the general election of 1906 Mr. Herbert Samuel had been returned unopposed Mr. H Samuel Liberal 5834 Mr. Jeffrey Drag Conservative 3798 Liberal Majority 2036 Meanwhile another by-election was being fought in Dumfriesboro where the Liberal Majority was again reduced Footnotes 37 Daughter of the late Sir David Brand Sheriff of Edinburgh and Chairman of the Crafters Commission who had been knighted for his services to the Liberal Party Note 38 The Scotch Fiscal is the officer who prosecutes in the case of petty criminal offences 39 An attempt was made to charge some of the women with unlawful wounding because a man's hand had been cut by the falling glass but on the wound being found to be very slight the charge was reduced to one of common assault End of Chapter 20 Chapter 21 of the Suffragette The History of the Woman's Militant Suffrage Movement by E. Silvia Pankhurst This LibriVox recording is in the public domain 21 September to October 1909 The Arrest at Birmingham Forcible Feeding in Winston Green Jail Mr. Kier Hardee's protest Opinions of Medical Experts A resignation of Mr. Brailsford and Mr. Nevenson And now on September 17th the Prime Minister was going up to Birmingham to hold a meeting of 10,000 people at the Great Bingley Hall A Bauer-Bedecked special train was to carry the cabinet ministers and members of parliament up north straight from their duties in the house and back again Tremendous efforts were being made to work up enthusiasm for at this meeting Mr. Asquith was to throw down his challenge to the House of Lords to proclaim that their power of veto should be abolished and that the will of the people should prevail But the suffragettes were determined that if the freedom to voice their will were to be confined to half the people alone there should be no peace in Birmingham for the Prime Minister Mrs. Lee and her colleagues who were organizing there began by copying the police methods so far as to address a warning to the public not to attend Mr. Asquith's meeting as disturbances were likely to ensue and immediately the authorities were seized with panic A great tarpaulin stretched across the glass roof of the Bingley Hall a tall fire escape was placed on each side of the building and hundreds of yards of firemen's hose were laid across the roof Wooden barriers nine feet high were erected along the station platform and across all the leading thoroughfares in the neighborhood whilst the ends of the streets both in front and at the back of the Bingley Hall were sealed up by barricades Nevertheless inside those very sealed up streets numbers of suffragettes had been lodging for days past and were quietly watching the arrangements At the same time outside in the town a vigorous propaganda campaign was being carried on by their comrades and this culminated in an enthusiastic votes for women demonstration in the bullring the day before the great liberal meeting When Mr. Asquith left the House of Commons for his special train detectives and policemen hemmed him in on every side and when he arrived at the station in Birmingham he was smuggled to the Queen's Hotel by a back subway a quarter of a mile in length and carried up in the luggage lift In the hotel he took his meal alone in a private room away from his guests Though guarded by a strong escort of mounted police he thought it wisest not to enter the hall by the entrance at which he had been expected Meanwhile tremendous crowds were thronging the streets and the ticket holders were watched as closely as spies in time of war They had to pass four barriers and were squeezed through them by a tiny gangway and then passed between the long lines of police and amid an incessant roar of show your ticket The vast throngs of people who had no tickets and had only come out to see the show surged against the barriers like great human waves and occasionally cries of votes for women were greeted with deafening cheers Inside the hall there were armies of stewards and groups of police at every turn The meeting began by the singing of a song of freedom led by a band of trumpeters Then the Prime Minister appeared Four years passed the people have been beguiled with unfulfilled promises He declared but during his speech he was again and again reminded by men of the unfulfilled promises which had been made to women and though men who interrupted him on other subjects were never interfered with these champions of the suffragettes were in every case set upon with a violence which was described by onlookers as revengeful and vicious Thirteen men were maltreated in this way Meanwhile amid the vast crowds outside women were fighting for their freedom Cabinet ministers had sneered at them and taunted them with not being able to use physical force Working men have flung open the franchise door at which the ladies are scratching Mr. John Burns had said So now they were showing that if they would they could use violence though they were determined that at any rate as yet they would hurt no one Again and again they charged the barricades one woman with a hatchet in her hand and the friendly people always pressed forward with them In spite of a thousand police the first barrier was many times thrown down Whenever a woman was arrested the crowd struggled to secure her release and over and over again they were successful one woman being snatched from the constables no fewer than seven times Inside the hall Mr. Asquith had not only the men to contend with for the meeting had not long been in progress when there was a sudden sound of splintering glass and a woman's voice was heard loudly denouncing the government A missile had been thrown through one of the ventilators by a number of suffragettes from an open window in a house opposite The police rushed to the house door burst it open and scrambled up the stairs falling over each other in their haste to reach the women and then dragged them down and flung them into the street where they were immediately placed under arrest Even whilst this was happening they burst upon the air the sound of an electric motor horn which issued from another house nearby Evidently there were suffragettes there too The front door of this house was barricaded and so also was the door of the room in which the women were but the infuriated liberal stewards forced their way through and rested the instrument from the woman's hands No sooner was this affected however than the rattling of missiles was heard on the other side of the hall and on the roof of a house thirty feet above the street lit up by a tall electric standard was seen the little agile figure of Mrs. Lee with a tall fair girl beside her both of whom were tearing up the slates with axes and flinging them on to the roof of the Bingley hall and down into the road below always however taking care to hit no one and sounding a warning before throwing The police cried to them to stop and angry stewards came rushing out of the hall to second this demand but the women calmly went on with their work A ladder was produced and the men prepared to mount it but the only reply was a warning to be careful and all present felt that discretion was the better part of valor Then the fire hose was dragged forward but the firemen refused to turn it on and so the police themselves slated on the woman until they were drenched to the skin The slates had now become terribly slippery and the women were in great danger of sliding from the steep roof but they had already taken off their shoes and so contrived to retain a foothold and without intermission they continued Firing Slates Finding that water had no power to subdue them their opponents retaliated by throwing bricks and stones up at the two women but instead of trying as they had done to avoid hitting the men took good aim at them and soon blood was running down the face of the tall girl Charlotte Marsh and both had been struck several times At last Mr. Asquith had said his say and came hurrying out of the building A slate was hurled at the back of his car as it drove away and then firing ceased from the roof for the cabinet minister was gone Seeing that they had now nothing to fear the police had once placed a ladder against the house and scrambled up to bring the suffragettes down and then, without allowing them to put on their shoes they marched them through the streets in their stalking feet the blood streaming from their wounds and their wet garments clinging to their limbs At the police station Bale was refused and the two women were sent to the cells to pass the night in their drenched clothing Meanwhile amid the hooting of the crowd Mr. Asquith had driven away through the town and as the special train in which he was to return to London left the station a shower of small stones rattled against his carriage window whilst a great bar of iron was flung into an empty compartment in the rear The two women who had done these things were at once seized by the police and were also obliged to pass the night in the cells whilst six who had been arrested in the crowd earlier met the same fate Eventually eight of the women received sentences of imprisonment varying from one month to fourteen days whilst Charlotte Marsh was sent to prison for three months hard labour and Mrs. Lee for four We knew that Mrs. Lee and her comrades in the Birmingham prison would carry out the hunger strike and on the following Friday, September 24th reports appeared in the press that the government had resorted to the horrible expedient of feeding them by force by means of a tube passed into the stomach Failed with concern, the Committee of the Women's Social and Political Union at once applied both to the prison and to the home office to know if this were true but all information was refused The WSPU now made inquiries as to the probable results of this treatment and were informed that it was liable to cause laceration of the throat and grave and permanent injury to the digestive functions and that especially if the patient should resist as the tube was being inserted or withdrawn there was serious danger of it's going astray and penetrating the lungs or some other vital part The whole operation together with all the attendant circumstances could not fail to put a most excessive strain upon the heart and the entire nervous system and if there were any heart weakness death might ensue at any moment In the Lancet for September 28th, 1872 a case was reported of a man under sentence of death who had been forcibly fed by means of the stomach pump That is to say by means of an India rubber tube passed through the mouth into the stomach the method used in the case of the suffragettes The man had died In the same issue of the Lancet appeared the opinion upon this question of several prominent medical men Dr. Anderson Moxie, MD, MRCP had said If anyone were to ask me to name the worst possible treatment for suicidal starvation I should say unhesitatingly forcible feeding by means of the stomach pump Dr. Tennant stated that this method of feeding produced an incentive to resistance and that the exhaustion thereby introduced was sometimes so great as to cause death by syncope Dr. Russell had met with a case in which death had occurred immediately after placing of the tube before it could be withdrawn much less used and Dr. Connolly was appalled by the dangers resulting from the forcible administration of food by the mouth Amongst the various important medical experts consulted by the Women's Social and Political Union was Dr. Forbes Winslow whose wide experience in cases of insanity could not be questioned When asked professionally to give his views on the subject he said So far as the stomach pump is concerned it is an instrument I have long ago discontinued using even in the most serious cases of melancholia where the victim perhaps from some religious delusion refuses all nourishment It possibly may be regarded by some as the most simple means of administering food but this I challenged by saying at once that it is the most complicated and the most dangerous I have known some of the most serious injuries inflicted by the persistent use of the stomach pump I have known a case in which the tongue had been partly bitten off or it has been twisted behind the feeding tube He added that forcible feeding was especially dangerous in cases of heart or lung weakness or of rupture or hernia and that the result of persistent use would be to seriously injure the Constitution to lacerate the parts surrounding the mouth to break and ruin the teeth When the House of Commons met on Monday we learnt that our fears were only too well founded for Mr. Keir Hardy drew from Mr. Masterman who spoke on the Home Secretary's behalf the admission that the suffragettes in Winston Green Jail were being forcibly fed by means of a tube which was passed through the mouth and into the stomach and through which the food was pumped The unprecedented and outrageous nature of the assault was glossed over by the use of the term Hospital Treatment in connection with it Mr. Masterman admitted, however, that there were no regulations which authorized the proceeding but he stated that it was resorted to in the case of men and women prisoners who were weak-minded or con-tumacious Mr. Hardy's indignant protest and reminder that the last man prisoner to whom such treatment had been meted out had died under it were met with shouts of laughter by the supporters of the government Horrified by their heartless and unseemly levity in the face of so serious a question he at once addressed a statement to the press in which he declared that he could not have believed that a body of gentleman could have found reason for mirth and applause in a scene which had no parallel in the recent history of our country As far as he could learn no power to feed by force had been given to prison authorities save in the case of persons certified to be insane He concluded by warning the public of the danger that one of the prisoners would succumb to the so-called hospital treatment and by appealing to the people of these islands to speak out air our annals had been stained by such a tragedy Others hastened to second this protest Mr. C. Mansell Moulin M.D. FRCS wrote to The Times as a hospital surgeon of 30 years standing to indignantly repudiate Mr. Masterman's use of the term hospital treatment declaring that it was a foul libel for that violence and brutality have no place in hospitals as Mr. Masterman ought to know Dr. Forbes Ross of Hardy Street wrote to the press saying As a medical man without any particular feeling for the cause of the suffragettes I consider that forcible feeding by the methods employed is an act of brutality beyond common endurance and I am astounded that it is possible for members of parliament with mothers wives and sisters of their own to allow it A memorial signed by 116 doctors headed by Sir Victor Horsley FRCS W. Hugh Fenton M.D.M.A C. Mansell Moulin M.D. FRCS Forbes Winslow M.D. and Alexander Haig M.D. FRCP was organized by Dr. Flora Murray and addressed to Mr. Asquith protesting against the artificial feeding of the suffragette prisoners on the ground that it was attended by the gravest risks and was both unwise and inhuman To this memorial many of the doctors added descriptive notes of their own Mr. W.A. Davidson M.D. FRCS wrote A most cruel and brutal procedure were the tubes cleaned, were they new If not they have probably been used for people suffering from some disease The inside of the tube cannot well be cleaned Very often the trouble is not taken to clean them Note 40 Mr. Gladstone tried to shelter himself behind the officials who were his subordinates and to place the responsibility on the medical officers For this he was strongly condemned by the British Medical Journal which characterized his conduct as contemptible Note 41 In reply to the protests of medical men and the memorial from doctors which had been addressed to him Mr. Gladstone succeeded in drawing a statement from Sir Richard Douglas Powell the president of the Royal College of Physicians who said that he thought the memorial exaggerated though he admitted that forcible feeding was not wholly free from possibilities of accident with those who resist He added that in dissenting from the view expressed by the memorialists he was assuming that the feeding of the prison patients was entirely carried out by skilled nursing attendants under careful medical observation and control We of course know that this was not the case A large number of doctors including Dr. R. G. Layton physician to the Walsall Hospital replied to Sir Douglas Powell by again recapitulating the dangers of forcible feeding But indeed the opinions of medical men were unnecessary to those who afterwards came in contact with the woman who had been forcibly fed Their exhausted condition was a form of evidence that no argument could upset It is important to note also that during the year 1910 two ordinary criminals, a man and a woman were subjected to forcible feeding The man died during the first operation The woman committed suicide after the second Meanwhile the bulk of the liberal press were defending the action of their government The Daily News had acclaimed Vera Figner for assaulting one of the Russian prison officials in order to secure better conditions for her fellow captives It had characterized as the one healthy symptom in Spain The revolt of the Spanish people against their government in regard to the Rifian War though this revolt had entailed the burning down of convents full of women and children who were in no way responsible for the trouble and other dread acts of violence At the same time in regard to events at home this paper was declaring that if the House of Lords were to tamper with the Irish land bill there would be no wonder if all the old methods of cattle driving and other violence were revived in Ireland Yet the Daily News had had nothing but chiding and dispraise for the hunger strikers and in regard to forcible feeding it now said It is the only alternative to allowing the women to starve themselves Thus the two most obvious ways out of the difficulty firstly that of treating the women as political prisoners and secondly the more reasonable one of extending the franchise to women and thus ending the strife were entirely ignored Revolted by the hypocritical and inconsistent attitude of this paper two of its foremost leader writers and of the ablest journalists in the country Mr. Henry Nevenson and Mr. H. N. Brailsford resigned their posts upon its staff writing publicly to explain their reasons for so doing Many sincere Liberals resigned their memberships and official posts under the Liberal Association including the Reverend J. M. Lloyd Thomas Minister of the High Pavement Chapel, Nottingham resigned from the Liberal Association and there were many other resignations amongst them the following Mrs. Catherine C. Osier, the President Ms. Gertrude E. Southall, the Honorable Secretary and Mrs. Alice Yoxal, the Treasurer of the Birmingham Woman's Liberal Association Mrs. S. Reed, the Chairman of the Egbest and Woman's Liberal Association Lady Blake, the President of the Berwick Woman's Liberal Association and Mrs. Branch, one of the most prominent members of the Northampton Woman's Liberal Association At the same time, prominent men and women of all shades of opinion including Mrs. Ayrton, Flora Annie Steele Lady Betty Balfour, the Reverend J. R. Campbell and the Honorable H.B.T. Strangeway's ex-premier of South Australia appealed to the government to give votes to women and bring this useless warfare to an end Meanwhile, except for the admissions of Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Masterman in the House of Commons nothing definite was known as to the condition of the outraged prisoners No direct communication had been held with them and even a petition from their parents and relatives to be allowed to send their own medical attendant into the prison had been refused The fearful anxiety and suspense endured by all concerned may well be imagined Again and again, Messrs. Hatchet Jones, Bisgood and Marshall, the solicitors engaged to act on the prisoner's behalf, applied for permission to interview their clients But Mr. Gladstone obstinately refused until he was informed that legal proceedings were being taken for assault against him and the governor and doctor of the Birmingham prison and that rits were being issued and that Ms. Laura Ainsworth would shortly be released so that the full details would be known in any case Thus at last he grudgingly consented to the interview and sworn statements were made by all the women Mrs. Lee explained that on arriving at Winston Green Jail on Wednesday, September 22nd, she had broken her cell windows as a protest against the prison treatment As a punishment she was thrust that evening into a cold, dimly lit punishment cell A plank bed was brought in and she was forcibly stripped and handcuffed with the hands behind during the day except at mealtimes when the palms were placed together in front At night the hands were fastened in front with the palms out Potatoes, bread and gruel were brought into her cell on Thursday but she did not touch them and in the afternoon she was taken still handcuffed before the magistrates who sentenced her to a further nine days in the punishment cell At midnight on Thursday her wrists being terribly swollen and painful the handcuffs were removed She still refused food and on Saturday she was taken to the doctor's room Here is her account of the affair The doctor said You must listen carefully to what I have to say I have my orders from my superior officers He had a blue official paper in his hand to which he referred that you are not to be released even on medical grounds If you still refrain from food I must take other measures to compel you to take it I then said I refuse and if you force food on me I want to know how you are going to do it He said That is a matter for me to decide I said that he must prove that I was insane that the lunacy commissioners would have to be summoned to prove that I was insane I declared that forcible feeding was an operation and therefore could not be performed without a sane patient's consent He merely bowed and said Those are my orders She was then surrounded and held down whilst the chair was tilted backwards She clenched her teeth but the doctor pulled her mouth away to form a pouch and the wardress poured in milk and brandy some of which trickled in through the crevices Later in the day the doctors and wardresses again appeared They forced her down onto the bed and held her there One of the doctors then produced a tube two yards in length with a glass junction in the center and a funnel at one end He forced the other end of the tube up her nostril hurting her so terribly that the matron and two of the wardresses burst into tears and the second doctor interfered At last the tube was pushed down into the stomach She felt the pain of it to the end of the breastbone Then one of the doctors took upon a chair holding the funnel end of the tube at arms length and poured food down whilst the wardresses and the other doctor all gripped her tight She felt as though she would suffocate There was a rushing burning sensation in her head The drums of her ears seemed to be bursting The agony of pain in the throat and breastbone continued The things seemed to go on for hours When at last the tube was withdrawn she felt as though all the back of her nose and throat were being torn out with it Then almost fainting she was carried back to the punishment cell and put to bed For hours the pain in her chest, nose and ears continued and she felt terribly sick and faint Day after day the struggle continued She used no violence but each time resisted and was overcome by force of numbers Often she vomited during the operation When the food did not go down quickly enough the doctor pinched her nose with the tube in it causing her even greater pain On Tuesday afternoon she heard Miss Edwards one of her fellow prisoners cry from an open doorway opposite Locked in a padded cell since Sunday Then the door was shut She applied to see the visiting magistrates and appealed to them on behalf of her comrade saying that she knew her to have a weak heart but was told that no prisoner could interfere on another's behalf She protested by breaking the windows of the hospital cell to which owing to her weakness she had now been taken and was then thrust into the padded cell as Miss Edwards was taken from it the bed which she had occupied being still warm The padded cell was lined with some India rubber-like stuff and she felt as though she would suffocate for want of air She was kept there till Wednesday, still being fed by force On Saturday she felt that she could endure the agony of it no longer and determined to barricade her cell She piled up her bed and chair but after three hours men mortars forced the door open with spades Then the chief warder threatened and abused her and she was dragged back to the padded cell In Miss Ainsworth's case the feeding was done through the mouth Her jaws were pried open with a steel instrument to allow of the gag being placed between her teeth She experienced great sickness especially when the tube was being withdrawn Miss Hilda Burkitt's experiences were very dreadful She had already fasted four days and was extremely weak when she was seized by two doctors four wardresses and the matron who tried for more than half an hour to force her to swallow from the feeding cup Then a tube was forced up her nose but she succeeded in coughing it back twice and at last very near collapse she was carried to her cell and put to bed by the wardresses This will kill me sooner than starving, she said I cannot stand much more of it but I am proud you have not beaten me yet Still suffering greatly in head, nose and throat she was left alone for half an hour and the matron and wardresses then returned to persuade her to take food On her refusal they said Well, you will have to come again, they are waiting Oh surely not the torture chamber again, she cried but they lifted her out of bed and carried her back to the doctors who again attempted to force her to drink from the feeding cup Still she was able to resist and then one of them said The home office has given me every power to use what force I like I am going to use the stomach pump It is illegal and an assault I shall prosecute you, was her reply but as she spoke a gag was forced into her mouth and the tube followed She had almost fainted and felt as if she were going to die and now for some reason the tube was withdrawn without having been used but in her great weakness the officials were now able to overcome her resistance and to pour liquid into her mouth with the feeding cup This sort of thing went on day after day On Thursday morning she was unconscious when they came into her cell and they succeeded in feeding her During the night she was in agony She told the doctor he had given her too much food and she cried For mercy's sake let me be, I am too tired But Brandy and Benjamin's food were forcibly administered During the whole month she only slept four nights But the story of these sufferings had no power to influence the government They were determined to persevere with the forcible feeding and were so far from abandoning this hateful form of torture that evidently thinking the women who had won their way out of prison by the hunger strike had been let off too easily they proceeded to re-arrest a number of them upon the most flimsy charges Evelyn Wury who had been arrested with Mrs. Lee and the others but afterwards discharged by the magistrate had been refused bail between the time of her arrest and trial and kept for 17 hours as an ordinary prisoner in the unsanitary police court cells She might have been thought therefore to be entitled to claim damages for wrongful arrest and detention but was nevertheless re-arrested because she had broken the cell window to obtain more air and was sentenced either to pay a fine of 11 shillings or go to prison for seven days She chose imprisonment but her fine was paid by a member of the Birmingham Liberal Club Ms. Rona Robinson, Ms. Florence Clarkson Ms. Georgina Heales and Ms. Bertha Brewster who had all gone through the hunger strike in Liverpool were also summoned for breaking their cell windows in spite of the fact that they had already been severely punished in prison for these offenses On their refusal to answer the summons warrants were issued for their arrest Rona Robinson who was said to have committed damage to the extent of two shillings was arrested on October 15th in Manchester and was taken the same night to Liverpool Though her doctor had certified her to be suffering from laryngeal guitar and a weak irregular action of the heart she was sent to prison for 14 days imprisonment in the 3rd division Owing to the state of her health the Liverpool authorities refused to take the responsibility of feeding her by force and she was accordingly released after a fast of 72 hours The other warrants were not executed for some time that against Ms. Florence Clarkson being held over until December when she happened to notify the Manchester police of a burglary that had taken place in the WSPU offices in that city She was then immediately arrested on the old charge Bale was refused and she was kept in custody from Saturday to Monday when she was punished by a further fortnight's imprisonment for having committed damage to the value of half a shilling three months before After three days on December 15th she was released in the state of complete collapse The warrant against Ms. Bertha Brewster was held over until January when she was sentenced to six weeks hard labour to pay for her 3.9 damage Footnotes Note 40 Mr. Gladstone afterwards stated in the house that the tubes were carefully cleaned and kept in thoracic solution between each operation but Ms. Dorothy Pethick who was imprisoned in Newcastle saw the tube lying open and exposed in a basket in the reception room Note 41 The British Journal of Nursing stated that even under the most favourable circumstances forcible feeding required delicate manipulation and that it was an operation which should only be performed by medical practitioners or trained nurses and pointed out that the prison mordresses were quite unqualified to take part in it End of Chapter 21