The Suffragette: The History of the Women's Militant Suffrage Movement, 1905-1910Pankhurst, E. Sylvia (Estelle Sylvia)
History
The Suffragette: The History of the Women's Militant Suffrage Movement, 1905-1910
Pankhurst, E. Sylvia (Estelle Sylvia)
Women -- Suffrage -- Great Britain
The importance of raising our question at this meeting was of course
apparent, and we at once endeavoured to procure tickets of admission.
But, even so early in the fight as this, the Liberals did not scruple
to refuse tickets to women who might be going to ask awkward questions.
On one occasion just as two tickets were about to be delivered over
to me, I was accused of having questioned Mr. Asquith at a meeting in
the Queen's Hall, and, though I had really not been present at that
meeting, I was obliged to go away empty-handed. I had been mistaken for
Annie Kenney who had come to London to attend both the Queen's Hall
and the Albert Hall meetings. We both of us thought the incident most
absurd, for we do not in any way resemble each other. But it put us on
our guard, and when on the very morning of the Albert Hall meeting, a
friend sent me three tickets, we made up our minds that they should
not be rendered useless by those who presented them being turned away
at the doors. I had been twice interviewed in two different sets of
clothes by the Liberal officials who had eventually refused me the
tickets and Annie herself had been paraded before a row of stewards; it
was therefore clear that if either of us went to the meeting we must go
disguised. We decided at last that the three tickets should be used by
Theresa Billington, who had recently joined the Union and was coming
from Manchester for the meeting, by Annie herself, and by a working
woman from the East End, a recent convert. Nevertheless, we intended
first to give the Prime Minister a chance to answer fairly, so that
no disturbance need be made. Shortly before the meeting, therefore,
Annie Kenney dispatched by express messenger a letter to Sir Henry
Campbell-Bannerman on behalf of our Union, asking him whether the new
Government would give Women the vote, and stating that she should be
in the hall that night in the hope that this important question would
be answered without delay. If this were not done, she added that she
should feel bound to rise in her place and make a protest.
The next thing to do was to disguise Annie. We understood that most
of the ladies would wear evening gowns, but it was essential to show
as little of her face, neck, and hair as possible, so, after dressing
her up in a light cream-coloured frock, we added a fur coat and a
thick dark veil. She told us afterwards that she felt very hot in these
clothes which she was afraid to remove, but, with the little East End
convert walking closely behind her as her maid, she was allowed by the
scrutineers to pass into a private box which we afterwards found had
been specially set apart for the use of Mr. John Burns' family and
friends.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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