Footnotes:
[6] From the first, the London papers and especially the newly inaugurated Daily Mirror, had been somewhat interested in our unusual methods of propaganda. It was just at this time that the Daily Mail began to call us "Suffragettes" in order to distinguish between us and the members of the older Suffrage Society who had always been called "Suffragists," and who strongly objected to our tactics.
CHAPTER V
MAY TO AUGUST, 1906
Deputations to Mr. Asquith at Cavendish Square; Women Arrested and Imprisoned; The By-Elections at Cockermouth; Adoption of the Anti-Government Policy.
As Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman had told the deputation that he could not do anything for us because some members of his Cabinet were opposed to Women's Suffrage, we determined to bring special pressure to bear upon the hostile Ministers, the most notorious of whom was Mr. Asquith, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Strangely enough, just as we had decided upon this course of action, we were virtually advised to adopt it by no less a person than Mr. Lloyd George, at that time, President of the Board of Trade. When interrupted by Suffragettes in Liverpool Mr. George claimed the sympathy of the audience on the ground that he himself was a believer in Votes for Women, and said: "Why do they not go for their enemies? Why do they not go for their greatest enemy?" At once there was a cry of "Asquith! Asquith!" from all parts of the hall, and as Mr. Lloyd George made no attempt to repudiate the suggestion that he had referred to Mr. Asquith, it was very generally assumed that he had done so. An opportunity to "go for" Mr. Asquith soon presented itself on the occasion of his speaking at Northampton on June 14th. A few days before the meeting, Theresa Billington and Annie Kenney visited the town and in a series of open-air meetings took the people of the place entirely into their confidence, with the result that Mr. Asquith was welcomed not by cheering but by hooting crowds.
During the meeting and at the end of his speech Mr. Asquith was questioned by several women, all of whom were ejected with the greatest violence, whilst the audience broke into the now familiar turmoil. The cowardly and unnecessary brutality shown to them by the stewards at recent Liberal meetings, had by this time aroused great indignation amongst the women. Theresa Billington, who was of strong and vigorous physique and whose instinct, like that of every man, was to strike back if she were hit, had come to feel that she could no longer quietly endure the disgraceful treatment to which she had been subjected on several occasions. To this meeting therefore, she had gone armed with a dogwhip, the weapon she felt most suitable to employ against cowardly men. Her intention was not to use it if she were merely dragged out of the meeting, just as a man might have been, but only if her assailants should seek to take advantage of the fact that she was a woman and should behave in a peculiarly objectionable way.[7] Therefore, when the stewards had torn down her hair and treated her with every form of indignity and violence, not merely in dragging her from the hall but outside in the corridors as well, she had pulled out her whip and made a fairly free use of it.
The general trend of events now made us feel the necessity of securing a personal interview with Mr. Asquith, and we therefore wrote asking him to receive us. He replied that his rule was not to receive any deputation unconnected with his office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, and we then wrote as follows:—
To the Right Hon. H. H. Asquith, Chancellor of the Exchequer.