88 WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE 



London. Nevertheless, a modified " Conciliation " Bill, introduced the following 



session into the new House of Commons by Sir George Kemp, was read a second time 



by a majority of 167 on May 5, 1911, and a promise was given by the Government that 



as time was not available that year, the Bill would be given special facilities during 1912. 



Meantime, by way of calling attention to their grievance, many suffragist women 



determined to evade the Census enumeration on April 2, 1911, on the ground that if the 



Government denied them citizenship, it could not reasonably enrol them as 



Extra-par- citizens. They, therefore, arranged to spend the night in the houses of 



liameotary ... /. , ur i j <.u 



tactics. sympathising friends or in public places, and their project was in a measure 



successful. On June xyth the largest procession of women ever marshalled, 

 said to exceed 40,000 persons and over 4 miles in length, marched from the Thames 

 Embankment to the Albert Hall. Over 5,000 meetings were held in favour of the 

 " Conciliation Bill," a demonstration attended by 500,000 people took place in Hyde 

 Park, and another, attended by 10,000 people, in Trafalgar Square. 



It was understood that militancy was to be abandoned until the fate of the new Bill 

 should be known, but when in November 1911 Mr. Asquith announced to a deputation 



his intention of bringing in an Electoral Reform Bill for something akin to 

 resmaed. adult manhood suffrage, violent agitation broke out afresh, the contention 



being that this was being done in order to make the extension of the fran- 

 chise to women a political impossibility. A deputation of the suffragist leaders was 

 assured by Mr. Asquith on November iyth that though he personally was opposed to 

 their movement the Government would bow to the decision of the House of Commons 

 should an amendment to the new Reform Bill admitting women to the franchise be 

 introduced and carried. But the Women's Social and Political Union refused to be 

 pacified, and on the night of November 22nd window-breaking occurred at the Govern- 

 ment offices and in many parts of London. Amongst others arrested was Mrs. Pethick 

 Lawrence, who was sentenced to one month's imprisonment. On December i2th and 

 i3th the majority of the window-breakers were sentenced to two months' imprisonment. 

 On December iyth Mr. Lloyd George was assaulted on his way back from a meeting at 

 the Horticultural Hall, London, where he and Sir Edward Grey had spoken in favour of 

 Woman Suffrage. Nevertheless on February 23, 1912 Mr. Lloyd George again appeared 

 upon a Suffrage platform at the Albert Hall and spoke in favour of the cause. Sir 

 Edward Grey had expressed his sympathy with the movement in letters to Lord Lytton 

 published in November and December 1911. On the other hand Mr. Winston Churchill 

 declared his opposition in a letter to a Dundee correspondent on February 24, 191 2, and 

 on February 28th Lord Chancellor Loreburn and Mr. Lewis Harcourt took the same side 

 at a large meeting in the Albert Hall organised by the National League for Opposing 

 woman suffrage. It was clear that the Government were hopelessly divided; but the 

 fate of the Conciliation Bill, which might have profited by cabinet disagreement, was 

 adversely affected by a violent outburst of window-breaking and disorder which occurred 

 between March ist and 4th, 1912. By a pre-concerted plan a number of women, armed 



with hammers, went out and broke the plate glass windows of the principal 

 Re J ec */ a t ot London shops. When brought before the magistrates many of the window 



Conciliation , J . . 



BUI, breakers received sentences of hard labour. The wantonness of the damage 



and the loss caused to innocent people produced a reaction in public and 

 parliamentary opinion, and on March 28th the Conciliation Bill was rejected on second 

 reading by a majority of 14. Seeing the need of some change of tactics, the non-militant 

 National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies formed an alliance with the Labour party, 

 and decided on May i4th to support Labour candidates in opposition to Liberal candi- 

 dates, where the latter were unsatisfactory on the woman suffrage question. The 

 Women's Freedom League adopted the same policy. The Labour party responded by 

 largely supporting Mr. Philip Snowden's suffrage amendment to the Home Rule Bill. 

 On March 5, 1912 the headquarters of the Women's Social and Political Union, at 

 Clement's Inn, London, were entered by the police, who arrested Mr. and Mrs. Pethick 

 Lawrence on a charge of conspiracy in connection with the window-breaking raid. 



