Mr. Churchill himself, Cabinet Minister though he was to be, could not obtain such crowded audiences as the Suffragettes.
At the same time many Liberal women, dissatisfied with the behaviour of the Government and profoundly distrustful of Mr. Asquith, held almost entirely aloof from the contest while Miss Margaret Ashton, one of the most prominent, publicly stated that she would work no more for the Liberal Party until the Liberal Party were prepared to give her a vote. The Manchester Guardian wofully deplored these defections; declaring that "the Women's Liberal Associations were deprived in a large measure of their natural leaders" and tended "to become as sheep without a shepherd," and Mr. Churchill now began to realise that the women's opposition was a serious matter. Therefore, asked at an election meeting on April 15th, what he intended to do to help women to obtain the Parliamentary franchise, Mr. Churchill made the following statement: "I will try my best as and when occasion offers, because I do think sincerely that the women have always had a logical case and they have now got behind them a great popular demand amongst women. It is no longer a movement of a few extravagant and excitable people, but one which is gradually spreading to all classes of women, and, that being so, it assumes the same character as franchise movements have previously assumed."
Some people thought that the Suffragettes would be satisfied with Mr. Churchill's promise to use his influence, and would accordingly withdraw their opposition to his return, but Christabel Pankhurst at once addressed a letter to the Manchester press explaining that the W. S. P. U. would be satisfied with nothing less than a definite understanding from the Prime Minister, and the Government as a whole, that the equal Women's Enfranchisement Bill would be carried into law without delay.
When polling began at eight o'clock on the morning of April 25th the Suffragettes took their places at the entrance to the booths in the midst of a heavy snow storm and remained there is spite of it, throughout the day. The excitement which had been growing as the contest progressed was not confined to the poorer members of the electorate, but spread in all its force to the candidates themselves, and one of the Suffragettes was able to tell that when Mr. Churchill drove past the polling booth at which she was stationed, he stood up in his open carriage, shouting and shaking his fist at her.
During the counting of the votes, huge crowds assembled in Albert Square outside the Town Hall, and inside there was a large gathering of the more favoured persons. With pallid face the future Cabinet Minister walked feverishly up and down the room and when the figures were announced and it was known that Mr. Joynson-Hicks had defeated him by a majority of 429 votes, the Suffragettes, although they were his opponents, could not refrain from pitying him, for he burst into tears and hid his face on his mother's breast. As he passed out of the room, Mrs. Drummond, always eager and impulsive, darted up to him and, laying her hand on his arm, said: "It is the women that have done this, Mr. Churchill. You will understand now that we must have our vote." But he shook her off petulantly saying, "Get away, woman!" Meanwhile, Mr. Joynson-Hicks was outside thanking the electors who had returned him to Parliament, and in the course of his remarks he said: "I acknowledge the assistance I have received from those ladies who are sometimes laughed at, but who, I think, will now be feared by Mr. Churchill,—the Suffragists." These words were received with cheers. Next day all the newspapers were discussing Mr. Churchill's defeat and amongst others, the Manchester Guardian (L), the Daily News (L), the Morning Leader (L), the Daily Mirror (C), the Daily Telegraph (C), the Daily Chronicle (L), and the Standard (C), admitted that this was largely due to the opposition of the Suffragettes, whilst the Daily News now called upon the Liberal Party to bring this state of affairs to an end by granting the suffrage to women.
Of course it was a foregone conclusion that a safe seat would now be found for Mr. Churchill, and that of Dundee, which happened to be vacant, was immediately offered to him. On his accepting the invitation, the Suffragettes' armies hastened North to oppose him, and Mrs. Pankhurst held a great meeting in the Kinnaird Hall on the evening before his arrival. One of Mr. Churchill's first acts on reaching the constituency was to address a gathering of Liberal women, for he was determined to make every effort to secure their help in counteracting the influence of the Suffragettes. Instead of expatiating on the greatness of the general principles of his party, and calling upon his hearers to support him on those grounds, as politicians had been wont to do in the past, he dealt almost entirely with votes for women, saying that there was a "general demand" for the suffrage on the part of "a very large body of women throughout the country," and that the question had "now come into the arena of practical politics." He asked to be considered as a friend of the movement, and added, "No one can be blind to the fact that at the next General Election, Women's Suffrage will be a real practical issue and the next Parliament, I think, ought to see the gratification of the women's claims. I do not exclude the possibility of the suffrage being dealt with in this Parliament." He refused, however, to give any pledge that those in power would take action. He went on to describe the Suffragettes, as "hornets," and presumably referring to the by-election at Peckham, he said: "I have seen with regret, some of the most earnest advocates of the cause allying themselves with the forces of drink and reaction carried shoulder high, so I am informed, by the rowdy elements which are always to be found at the tail of a public-house made agitation."
Mr. Churchill's slanderous innuendoes in regard to the Women's Campaign at Peckham were not considered worthy of notice by the W. S. P. U., but Miss Maloney, a high spirited young member of the Women's Freedom League who had also taken part in that particular by-election, determined that she would force him to withdraw what he had said. At his next open air meeting she appeared brandishing a large muffin bell and warned him that unless he would apologise to the women, she would not let him speak. As he refused to do so, she carried out her threat. The Women's Social and Political Union regretted this action, because at by-elections they preferred to fight the Government with argument alone, but the Freedom League upheld Miss Maloney, and she continued to make it impossible for Mr. Churchill to speak in the open. On the eve of the poll it came to a pitched battle between them in which Miss Maloney triumphed. It had been arranged that Mr. Churchill should address a meeting at the Gas Works and "la Belle Maloney," as she was afterwards nicknamed, was speaking at the gates when he appeared. As before she at once called upon him to apologise, but, without answering, he passed on to enter the gates. She followed and though Mr. Churchill's friends strove to prevent her entering, the crowd swept her into the yard. She had lost her bell in the rush but, quite undaunted, she darted into the shed where the meeting was to take place, and, whilst Mr. Churchill mounted a bench to address the workmen, Miss Maloney climbed up on to a pile of boxes directly opposite to him. Again she called for the apology, but he remained silent and the crowd burst into shouts and yells. At last, as the noise grew, the Manager of the Gas Works, a supporter of the Government, shouted out, "hands up all those who want to hear Mr. Churchill." A few hands, half a dozen or so, were all that were raised, and seeing this Miss Maloney cried, "Now, friends, who wants to hear me?" and when a great forest of hands shot up, in answer, she pressed home her advantage saying, "Gentlemen, the resolution has been put to the meeting and by a large majority it has been decided in my favour." Then she went on to explain what she had come for, but in the midst of her words, Mr. Churchill jumped up and repeated his earlier statement in a modified form. For some time she and the future Cabinet Minister continued shouting at each other through the uproar of the crowd. At last, white with rage, he turned tail and left the meeting to her. Thus, as the papers said, "the amazing episode concluded."
Meanwhile the Women's Social and Political Union had been holding some two hundred large and enthusiastic meetings in the constituency each week, and on the eve of the poll they wound up with five monster demonstrations, four of which were in the open air and the fifth in the Drill Hall. Though the bulk of the Press throughout the country preferred to give greater space to the account of the incident between Mr. Churchill and Miss Maloney with her bell, glowing accounts of these W. S. P. U. meetings appeared in the Dundee papers. The Referee for May 3rd also said:
The women are doing wonderful election work and not getting half the credit for it that they deserve. Our wayward Winnie does not underestimate them as a fighting force. The War Song of the conquering Christabel to the worsted Churchill is "Bonnie Dundee."
"And Tremble, false Whig, in the midst of your glee,