The History of Woman Suffrage, Volume VI

by Unknown

Mr. Lloyd George, who was present, was pressed by the deputation to speak but did so only very briefly. He was known as an opponent of the Conciliation Bill but had voted for it in 1911 because it was so drafted as to admit of free amendment. He made no secret of his conviction that the wider enfranchisement afforded by amendment of the Government measure would, to use his own expression, "torpedo" the Conciliation Bill. Almost immediately after the deputation thus described he sent the following message to the N.U.W.S.S.: "The Prime Minister's pronouncement as to the attitude to be adopted by the Government towards the question seems to make the carrying of a Women's Suffrage Amendment to next year's Franchise Bill a certainty. I am willing to do all in my power to help those who are labouring to reach a successful issue in the coming session. Next year provides the supreme opportunity and nothing but unwise handling of that chance can compass failure."

There was plenty of unwise handling, but not, as I am proud to think, from the constitutional suffragists. The first was the wild outburst of "militancy" already referred to. Mr. Lloyd George was pursued by persistent interruption and annoyance deliberately organised by the Women's Social and Political Union. A meeting he addressed at Bath, mainly devoted to advocacy of Women's Suffrage, on Nov. 24, 1911, was all but turned into a bear garden by these deliberately planned and very noisy interruptions. Not to be outdone in "unwise handling" Mr. Asquith next had his innings. He received an anti-suffrage deputation on Dec. 14, 1911, about three weeks after he had received the suffragists, and in the course of his remarks to them he said: "As an individual I am in entire agreement with you that the grant of the Parliamentary Vote to women in this country would be a political mistake of a very disastrous kind." This went far to invalidate the fair-seeming promises to us given about three weeks earlier. How could a man in the all-important position of Prime Minister pledge himself to use all the forces at the disposal of the Government to pass in all its stages through both houses a measure which might include the perpetration of "a political mistake of a very disastrous kind"? A member of Mr. Asquith's own party who took part in the anti-suffrage deputation interpreted this expression of his chief as an S.O.S. call to his followers in the House to deliver him from the humiliation of having to fulfil the promises he had given us. Every kind of intrigue and trick known to the accomplished parliamentarian was put into operation. Every Irish Nationalist vote was detached from support of the Bill. A description of one of these discreditable devices, among them an attempt to hold up the N.U.W.S.S. to public contempt as purveyors of "obscene" literature, will be found in a book by myself called The Women's Victory and After, published in 1920.

The first result of these intrigues was the defeat of the Conciliation Bill, by 14 votes only, on March 28, 1912. This was hailed as an immense triumph by the anti-suffragists, as indeed in a sense it was, for exactly the same bill had been carried by the same House in 1911 by a majority of 167; but it was a triumph which cost the victors dear, especially when the tricks and perversions of truth came to light by which it had been achieved. From this time forward public opinion was more decided in our favour and the general view was that the Government had treated us shabbily.

The progress made by the Government in pressing forward their Electoral Reform Bill was not rapid. When it was at last introduced it was discovered to be not a Reform Bill, but in the main a Registration Bill. In the second reading debate Mr. Asquith described his Bill as one to enfranchise "male persons only," and said in regard to women that he could not conceive that the House would "so far stultify itself as to reverse the considered judgment it had already arrived at" earlier in the session. It was a "considered judgment" to defeat the Bill by 14 votes in 1912 but not a "considered judgment" to have it carried by 167 in 1911! Sir Edward Grey felt strongly that the House had placed itself in a very undesirable position, but the Conciliation Bill was defeated and Sir Edward Grey, Mr. Lloyd George and the leading suffragists in the Government continued to assure us that the inclusion of Women's Suffrage through an amendment of the Government Bill presented us with by far the best prospect of success we had ever had. We worked as we had never worked before to secure the success of this amendment or series of amendments. The session of 1912 had lasted from January to December without the committee stage of the Government Bill being reached. This interminable session overflowed into 1913 and the debate on the suffrage amendments of the Government Bill was dated to begin on January 24th of that year. On January 23rd, however, in reply to a question, the Speaker [Mr. Lowther] indicated that he would probably be compelled to rule that if the Bill were amended so as to include the enfranchisement of women, he might feel obliged to rule that in this form it was not the same bill of which the second reading had been carried in July, and it would, therefore, have to be withdrawn and re-introduced! This ruling he confirmed on the following Monday, January 27th. Therefore, every one of the fair promises which Mr. Asquith had given us in November, 1911, proved to be absolutely worthless.

I do not accuse Mr. Asquith of anything worse at this stage than blundering. He was manifestly confounded and distressed by the Speaker's ruling. Whether this were due to the naming of the Bill or to Mr. Asquith's own speech on the second reading, "This is a bill to enfranchise male persons only, etc.", we were not able to discover; but the net result was that he found himself in a position in which it was impossible for him to fulfil the promises he had given us. Under these circumstances he did not take the only honorable course open to him, i.e., of sending for us once more and asking us what we should consider a reasonable equivalent for these unredeemed promises. He had made these promises five years back and had repeated them from time to time ever since. Now they were null and void. The only reasonable equivalent would have been the introduction of a Government Reform Bill which included the enfranchisement of women. Probably Mr. Asquith knew that this was what we should urge; for he not only did not send for us but he refused to see us or consult us in any way. He tossed us, without our consent, the thoroughly worthless substitute of a day for a Private Member's Bill, such as we had had experience of time and again ever since 1870. The N.U.W.S.S. indignantly rejected this offer and took no interest in the proposed Bill, which was, however, introduced and given a day for second reading in May, 1913, when it was defeated by a majority of 47.

This discreditable series of incidents did far more harm to the Government than to the suffrage cause, as was very conclusively shown in the press. "Punch," for instance, had a cartoon on Feb. 5, 1913, representing a dance in which Mr. Asquith figured as a defaulting partner in a corner and trying to escape from an indignant woman who said, "You've cut my dance!" This was indicative of the general trend of public opinion.

In the previous year the N.U.W.S.S. had placed a new interpretation on its election policy. This was to support in elections irrespective of party "the best friend of Women's Suffrage." After the defeat of the Conciliation Bill in 1912 when 42 so-called "friends" voted against it, we resolved in the future that the best friend was a man who was not only personally satisfactory but who also belonged to a party which had made Women's Suffrage a plank in its platform. This meant support for the Labour Party and for the development of this policy we raised a special fund called the Election Fighting Fund and took active steps in canvassing and speaking for Labour men whenever they presented themselves as candidates for vacant seats. Our movement had now become the storm centre of English politics. A well known labour leader wrote of the political situation in February, 1913, as follows: "The Women's Suffrage question will now dominate British politics until it is settled. It has within the last few weeks killed a great Government measure and it has done more than that. It has made it impossible for this or any succeeding Liberal Government to deal with franchise reform without giving votes to women. The Labour Party will see to that."

In 1913 the N.U.W.S.S. organised the greatest public demonstration it had ever made. We called it The Pilgrimage. It meant processions of non-militant suffragists, wearing their badges and carrying banners, marching towards London along eight of the great trunk roads. These eight processions, many of them lasting several weeks, stopped at towns and villages on their way, held meetings, distributed literature and collected funds. It was all a tremendous and unprecedented success, well organised and well done throughout. (Described in detail in The Women's Victory.) The Pilgrimage made a very great impression and was favourably commented on in the organs of the press which had never helped us before. We finished The Pilgrimage with a mass meeting in Hyde Park on July 26, where we had seventeen platforms, one for each of our federations. We asked Mr. Asquith and the leaders of other political parties to receive a deputation from The Pilgrimage the following week. They all accepted with the exception of Mr. John Redmond. When Mr. Asquith received us his demeanor was far less unfriendly than it had ever been before. He admitted that the offer of a Private Member's Bill was no equivalent for the loss of a place in a Government Bill. He said: "Proceed as you have been proceeding, continue to the end," and said if we could show that "a substantial majority of the country was favourable to Women's Suffrage, Parliament would yield, as it had always hitherto done, to the opinion of the country."

In May, 1914, suffrage ground was broken in the House of Lords by Lord Selborne and Lord Lytton, who introduced a bill on the lines of the Conciliation Bill, the latter making one of the most powerful speeches in our support to which we had ever listened. The Bill was rejected by 104 to 60, but we were more than satisfied by the weight of the speeches on our side and by the effect produced by them. Another important event which greatly helped our movement in 1914 was the protest of the National Trade Union Congress on February 12th against the Government's failure to redeem its repeated pledges to women and demanding "a Government Reform Bill which must include the enfranchisement of women." This was followed by resolutions passed at the annual conference of the National Labour Party re-affirming its decision "to oppose any further extension of the franchise to men in which women were not included."

There must, according to law, have been a General Election in 1915 and the remarkable progress of the women's cause made us feel confident that a Parliament would be elected deeply pledged to our support. Our friends were being elected and our enemies, including that worst type of enemy, the false friend and the so-called Liberal afraid of his own principles, were being rejected at by-elections in a manner that foreshadowed a great gain to suffrage forces at the General Election. Then suddenly, destroying all our hopes of success and jeopardizing the very existence of representative government and all forms of democracy throughout the world, came the outbreak of war; the entry of our own country and the resulting concentration of the vast majority of the British people, whether men or women, in the gigantic national effort which the successful resistance of such a foe demanded. August 4, 1914, was a heart-breaking day for us. Nevertheless, suffragists from the first faced the facts and saw clearly what their duty was. The "militants" instantly abandoned every sort of violence. A large number of the more active members of their societies formed the Women's Emergency Corps, who were ready to undertake all kinds of national work which the exigencies of the situation demanded. The N.U.W.S.S. Executive Committee meeting on August 3, the day before our own country was actually involved, resolved to suspend immediately all political propaganda for its own ends. Under normal circumstances we should have summoned a Council meeting to discuss the situation and to determine the course to be taken by the Union. This being impossible owing to difficulties connected with railway communication we consulted our societies, then numbering over 500, by post, placing them in possession of our own views, viz.: that ordinary political work would have to be suspended during the war and suggesting that our best course would be to use our staff and organising capacity in promoting forms of work designed to mitigate the distress caused by the war. We felt that our members would desire to be of service to the Nation and that the N.U.W.S.S. had in their organisation a special gift which they could offer to their country. This view was endorsed by our societies with only two dissenting.