Therefore at a great meeting in the Albert Hall on November 10th the truce broke—war was once more declared. Mrs. Pankhurst announced that another deputation would march to the House of Commons to carry a petition to the Prime Minister. She herself would lead the deputation, "If I were to go alone," she said, "still I would go," but at that hundreds of women's voices cried out from all parts of the Hall: "Mrs. Pankhurst, I will go with you," "I will go!" "I will go!" Then Mrs. Pethick Lawrence called for funds for the campaign, and nine thousand pounds was immediately subscribed.
The Autumn Session lasted but a few days, for on November 18, Mr. Asquith announced that Parliament would be dissolved on November 28th, and that a general election would take place. Even whilst he spoke, the women,—450 of them, divided into companies of less than twelve to keep within the law,—were marching from the Caxton Hall and Clement's Inn. Mrs. Pankhurst, Dr. Garrett Anderson, founder of Girton College and one of the medical women pioneers now over seventy years of age, Mrs. Hertha Ayrton, the scientist, Mrs. Cobden Sanderson, and Miss Neligan and Mrs. Brackenbury, both of whom had reached the great age of seventy-eight, were amongst the first little band. They soon learnt that the Prime Minister had refused to see them. Some of their number were hurled back into the crowd. The remainder were kept standing on the porch for hours with the shut door before them and a surging crowd behind.
The companies of women who came after were torn apart, felled to the ground, struck again and again, bruised and battered, and tossed hither and thither with a violence that perhaps excelled anything that had gone before. One hundred and fifteen women and four men were eventually arrested. But the full story of that day's happenings belongs to another, and, let us hope, to the last chapter of this long fight.
Meanwhile the Prime Minister forgot to reply to Mr. Keir Hardie's question as to the fate of the Conciliation Bill. Lord Balcarries then moved a resolution which was practically a vote of censure upon the Government for their treatment of the women. Fifty-two Members voted for it, but it was lost. Eventually Mr. Lloyd George said the Prime Minister would make a statement on the following Tuesday.
Tuesday saw the Women's Parliament again in Session and the women waiting eagerly for the news. Mr. Asquith said: "The Government will, if they are still in power, give facilities in the next Parliament for effectively proceeding with a Bill which is so framed as to admit of free amendment." He refused, however, to promise that this should be done during the first year of the New Parliament.
Facilities for the Conciliation Bill had been asked for; the reply that facilities would be given to a Bill so framed as to admit of free amendment was too vague to please the women. But the refusal to grant an opportunity for passing a Suffrage Bill into law during the first year of Parliament was more serious. The Parliament now to be dissolved had lasted less than a year. Who could insure a longer life for its successor? Mr. Asquith had given the women scant reason to trust any vague promises of his.
Therefore Mrs. Pankhurst announced to the women, "I am going to Downing Street. Come along, all of you;" and the women went. The police, however, gradually beat them back, and over a hundred arrests were made. On Wednesday, there were eighteen further arrests, and twenty-nine more on Thursday. Many of the women were discharged, but seventy-five received sentences of imprisonment varying from fourteen days to one month.
Then came the general election, and again the Suffragettes strenuously opposed the Government. In almost every constituency fought by them the Liberal vote was reduced. A notable instance was that of Cardiff, where a Liberal majority of 1555 was converted into a Conservative majority of 299. Here the 800 members of the Women's Liberal Association abstained from working for their party because its candidate, Sir Clarendon Hyde, was opposed to votes for women. The end of the election saw the Liberal government still in power.
During the year the Women's Suffrage societies had all grown largely. The Women's Social and Political Union's salaried staff now stands at 110 persons. Its central offices at Clement's Inn occupy twenty-three rooms, and a shop and thirteen rooms have also been taken for the Woman's Press at 156 Charing Cross Road. There are also 105 local centres of the Union. The income of the central organisation of the W. S. P. U. during 1910 was 34,500 pounds excluding 9,000 pounds made by the Woman's press and many thousands collected by the local Unions. The twenty thousand pound campaign fund is now complete.