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25 - Suffragette The Militant Fight for Womens Voting Rights by E. Sylvia Pankhurst · Suffragette The Militant Fight for Womens Voting Rights

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty one of The Suffragette The History of the
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  Speaker 1: Woman's Militant Suffrage Movement by E. Sylvia Pankhurst. This LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Twenty one September to
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  Speaker 1: October nineteen hundred nine the arrest at Birmingham forcible feeding
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  Speaker 1: in Winston Green Jail, mister Keir Hardy's protest opinions of
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  Speaker 1: medical experts, resignation of mister Brailsford and mister Nevinson. And
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  Speaker 1: now on September seventeenth, the Prime Minister was going up
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  Speaker 1: to Birmingham to hold a meeting of ten thousand people
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  Speaker 1: at the Great Bingley Hall. A bower rejected special train
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  Speaker 1: was to carry the Cabinet, ministers and members of Parliament
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  Speaker 1: up north, straight from their duties in the House and
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  Speaker 1: back again. Tremendous efforts were being made to work up
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  Speaker 1: enthusiasm for at this meeting, mister Asquith was to throw
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  Speaker 1: down his challenge to the House of Lords, to proclaim
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  Speaker 1: that their power of veto should be abolished and that
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  Speaker 1: the will of the people should prevail. But the Suffragettes
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  Speaker 1: were determined that if the freedom to voice their will
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  Speaker 1: were to be confined to have the people alone, there
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  Speaker 1: should be no peace in Birmingham. For the Prime Minister,
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  Speaker 1: Missus Lee and her colleagues, who were organizing there, began
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  Speaker 1: by copying the police methods so far as to address
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  Speaker 1: a warning to the public not to attend mister Asquith's meeting,
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  Speaker 1: as disturbances were likely to ensue, and immediately the authorities
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  Speaker 1: were seized with panic. A great tarpauland stretched across the
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  Speaker 1: glass roof of the Bingley Hall. A tall fire escape
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  Speaker 1: was placed on each side of the building, and hundreds
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  Speaker 1: of yards of firemen's hose were laid across the roof.
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  Speaker 1: Wooden barriers nine feet high were erected along the station
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  Speaker 1: platform and across all the leading thoroughfares in the neighborhood,
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  Speaker 1: whilst the ends of the streets, both in front and
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  Speaker 1: at the back of the Bingley Hall were sealed up
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  Speaker 1: by barricades. Nevertheless, inside those very sealed up streets, numbers
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  Speaker 1: of suffragettes had been lodging for days past and were
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  Speaker 1: quietly watching the arrangements. At the same time outside in
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  Speaker 1: them the town, a vigorous propaganda campaign was being carried
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  Speaker 1: on by their comrades, and this culminated in an enthusiastic
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  Speaker 1: Votes for Women demonstration in the bull Ring the day
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  Speaker 1: before the Great Liberal Meeting. When mister Asquith left the
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  Speaker 1: House of Commons for his special train, detectives and policemen
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  Speaker 1: hemmed him in on every side, and when he arrived
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  Speaker 1: at the station in Birmingham, he was smuggled to the
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  Speaker 1: Queen's Hotel by a back subway a quarter of a
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  Speaker 1: mile in length, and carried up in the luggage lift.
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  Speaker 1: In the hotel, he took his meal alone in a
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  Speaker 1: private room away from his guests, though guarded by a
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  Speaker 1: strong escort of mounted police. He thought it wisest not
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  Speaker 1: to enter the hall by the entrance at which he
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  Speaker 1: had been expected. Meanwhile, tremendous crowds were thronging the streets,
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  Speaker 1: and the ticket holders were watched as closely as spies
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  Speaker 1: in time of war. They had to pass four barriers
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  Speaker 1: and were squeezed through them by a tiny gangway, and
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  Speaker 1: then passed between the long lines of police, and amid
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  Speaker 1: an incessant roar of show your ticket, the vast throngs
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  Speaker 1: of people who had no tickets and had only come
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  Speaker 1: out to see the show surged against the barriers like
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  Speaker 1: great human waves, and occasionally cries of votes for women
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  Speaker 1: were greeted with deafening cheers. Inside the hall, there were
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  Speaker 1: armies of stewards and groups of police at every turn.
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  Speaker 1: The meeting began by the singing of a song of freedom,
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  Speaker 1: led by a band of trumpeters. Then the Prime Minister
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  Speaker 1: appeared four years past. The people had been beguiled with
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  Speaker 1: unfulfilled promises, he declared. But during his speech he was
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  Speaker 1: again and again reminded by men of the unfulfilled promises
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  Speaker 1: which had been made to women. And though men who
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  Speaker 1: interrupted him on other subjects were never interfered with, these,
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  Speaker 1: champions of the suffragettes were in every case set upon
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  Speaker 1: with a violence which was described by onlookers as revengeful
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  Speaker 1: and vicious. Thirteen men were maltreated in this way. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: amid the vast crowds outside women were fighting for their freedom.
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  Speaker 1: Cabinet ministers had sneered at them and taunted them with
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  Speaker 1: not being able to use physical force. Working men have
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  Speaker 1: flung open the franchise door at which the ladies are scratching,
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  Speaker 1: mister john Burns had said. So. Now they were showing
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  Speaker 1: that if they would, they could use violence. Though they
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  Speaker 1: were determined that at any rate as yet they would
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  Speaker 1: hurt no one. Again and again they charged the barricades,
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  Speaker 1: one woman with a hatchet in her hand, and the
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  Speaker 1: friendly people always pressed forward with them, in spite of
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  Speaker 1: a thousand police. The first barrier was many times thrown down.
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  Speaker 1: Whenever a woman was arrested, the crowd struggled to secure
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  Speaker 1: her release, and over and over again they were successful,
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  Speaker 1: one woman being snatched from the constables no fewer than
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  Speaker 1: seven times. Inside the hall, mister Asquith had not only
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  Speaker 1: the men to contend with, for the meeting had not
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  Speaker 1: long been in progress when there was a sudden sound
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  Speaker 1: of splintering glass, and a woman's voice was heard loudly
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  Speaker 1: denouncing the government. A missile had been thrown through one
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  Speaker 1: of the ventilators by a number of suffragettes from an
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  Speaker 1: open window in a house opposite. The police rushed to
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  Speaker 1: the house door, burst it open, and scrambled up the stairs,
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  Speaker 1: falling over each other in their haste to reach the women,
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  Speaker 1: and then dragged them down and flung them into the street,
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  Speaker 1: where they were immediately placed under arrest. Even whilst this
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  Speaker 1: was happening, there burst upon the air the sound of
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  Speaker 1: an electric motor horn, which issued from another house near by.
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  Speaker 1: Evidently there were suffragettes there too. The front door of
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  Speaker 1: this house was barricaded, and so also was the door
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  Speaker 1: of the room in which the women were, but the
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  Speaker 1: infuriated liberal stewards forced their way through and rested the
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  Speaker 1: instrument from the woman's hands. No sooner was this effected, however,
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  Speaker 1: than the rattling of missiles was heard on the other
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  Speaker 1: side of the hall, and on the roof of a
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  Speaker 1: house thirty feet above the street, lit up by a
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  Speaker 1: tall electric standard, was seen the little, agile figure of
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  Speaker 1: missus Lee, with a tall fair girl beside her, both
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  Speaker 1: of whom were tearing up the slates with axes and
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  Speaker 1: flinging them on to the roof of the Bingley Hall
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  Speaker 1: and down into the road below, always however, taking care
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  Speaker 1: to hit no one, and sounding a warning before throwing.
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  Speaker 1: The police cried to them to stop, and angry stewards
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  Speaker 1: came rushing out of the hall to second this demand,
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  Speaker 1: but the women calmly went on with their work. A
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  Speaker 1: ladder was produced and the men prepared to mount it,
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  Speaker 1: but the only reply was a warning to be careful,
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  Speaker 1: and all present felt that discretion was the better part
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  Speaker 1: of valor. Then the fire hose was dragged forward, but
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  Speaker 1: the firemen refused to turn it on, and so the
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  Speaker 1: police themselves plaited on the women until they were drenched
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  Speaker 1: to the skin. The slates had now become terribly slippery,
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  Speaker 1: and the women were in great danger of sliding from
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  Speaker 1: the steep roof, but they had already taken off their
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  Speaker 1: shoes and so contrived to retain a foothold, and without intermission,
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  Speaker 1: they continued firing slates, Finding that water had no power
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  Speaker 1: to subdue them. Their opponents retaliated by throwing bricks and
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  Speaker 1: stones up at the two women, but instead of trying
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  Speaker 1: as they had done to avoid hitting the men, took
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  Speaker 1: good aim at them, and soon blood was running down
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  Speaker 1: the face of the tall girl, Charlotte marsh and both
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  Speaker 1: had been struck several times. At last, mister Asquith had
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  Speaker 1: set his say and came hurrying out of the building.
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  Speaker 1: A slate was hurled at the back of his car
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  Speaker 1: as it drove away, and then firing ceased from the
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  Speaker 1: roof where the cabinet minister was gone. Seeing that they
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  Speaker 1: had now nothing to fear, the police at once placed
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  Speaker 1: a ladder against the house and scrambled up to bring
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  Speaker 1: the suffragettes down, and then, without allowing them to put
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  Speaker 1: on their shoes, they marched them through the streets in
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  Speaker 1: their stockinged feet, the blood streaming from their wounds, and
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  Speaker 1: their wet garments clinging to their limbs. At the police station,
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  Speaker 1: bail was refused and the two women were sent to
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  Speaker 1: the cells to pass the night in their drenched clothing. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: amid the hooting of the crowd, mister Asquith had driven
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  Speaker 1: away through the town, and as the special train in
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  Speaker 1: which he was to return to London left the station,
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  Speaker 1: a shower of small stones rattled against his carriage window,
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  Speaker 1: whilst a great bar of iron was s flung into
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  Speaker 1: an empty compartment in the rear. The two women who
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  Speaker 1: had done these things were at once seized by the
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  Speaker 1: police and were also a bliged to pass the night
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  Speaker 1: in the cells, whilst six who had been arrested in
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  Speaker 1: the crowd earlier met the same fate. Eventually, eight of
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  Speaker 1: the women received sentences of imprisonment, varying from one month
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  Speaker 1: to fourteen days, whilst Charlotte Marsh was sent to prison
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  Speaker 1: for three months hard labor and Missus Lee for four
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  Speaker 1: we knew that missus Lee and her comrades in the
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  Speaker 1: Birmingham Prison would carry out the hunger strike, and on
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  Speaker 1: the following Friday, September twenty fourth, reports appeared in the
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  Speaker 1: press that the government had resorted to the horrible expedient
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  Speaker 1: of feeding them by force by means of a tube
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  Speaker 1: passed into the stomach. Failed. With concern, the Committee of
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  Speaker 1: the Women's Social and Political Union at once applied both
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  Speaker 1: to the prison and to the Home Office to know
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  Speaker 1: if this were true, but all information was refused. The
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  Speaker 1: w s p U now made inquiries as to the
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  Speaker 1: probable results of this treatment, and were informed that it
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  Speaker 1: was liable to cause laceration of the throat and grave
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  Speaker 1: and permanent injury to the digestive functions, and that especially
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  Speaker 1: of the paation should resist as the tube was being
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  Speaker 1: inserted or withdrawn, there was serious danger of its going
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  Speaker 1: astray and penetrating the lungs or some other vital part.
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  Speaker 1: The whole operation, together with all the attendant circumstances, could
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  Speaker 1: not fail to put a most excessive strain upon the
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  Speaker 1: heart in the entire nervous system, and if there were
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  Speaker 1: any heart weakness, death might ensue at any moment. In
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  Speaker 1: the Lancet for September twenty eighth, eighteen seventy two, a
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  Speaker 1: case was reported of a man under sentence of death,
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  Speaker 1: who had been forcibly fed by means of the stomach pump,
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  Speaker 1: that is to say, by means of an India rubber
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  Speaker 1: tube passed through the mouth into the stomach, the method
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  Speaker 1: used in the case of the Suffragettes. The man had died.
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  Speaker 1: In the same issue of the Lancet appeared the opinion
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  Speaker 1: upon this question of several prominent medical men. Doctor Anderson
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  Speaker 1: MOXY m D m R c P had said, if
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  Speaker 1: any one were to ask me to name the worst
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  Speaker 1: possible treatment for suicidal starvation, I should say, unhesitatingly, forcible
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  Speaker 1: feeding by means of the stomach pump. Doctor Tennant stated
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  Speaker 1: that this method of feeding produced an incentive to resistance,
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  Speaker 1: and that the exhaustion thereby introduced was sometimes so great
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  Speaker 1: as to cause death by syncope. Doctor Russell had met
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  Speaker 1: with a case in which death had occurred immediately after
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  Speaker 1: placing of the tube, before it could be withdrawn much
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  Speaker 1: less used, and doctor Connolly was appalled by the dangerous
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  Speaker 1: resulting from the forcible administration of food by the mouth.
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  Speaker 1: Amongst the various important medical experts consulted by the Woman's
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  Speaker 1: Social and Political Union was doctor Forbes Winslow, whose wide
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  Speaker 1: experience in cases of insanity could not be questioned. When
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  Speaker 1: asked professionally to give his views on the subject, he said,
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  Speaker 1: so far as the stomach pump is concerned, it is
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  Speaker 1: an instrument I have long ago discontinued using even in
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  Speaker 1: the most serious cases of melancholia, where the victim, perhaps
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  Speaker 1: from some religious delusion, refuses all nourishment. It possibly may
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  Speaker 1: be regarded by some as the most simple means of
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  Speaker 1: administering food, but this I challenged by saying at once
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  Speaker 1: that it is the most complicated and the most dangerous.
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  Speaker 1: I have known some of the most serious injuries inflicted
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  Speaker 1: by the persistent use of the stomach pump. I have
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  Speaker 1: known a case in which the tongue had been partly
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  Speaker 1: bit enough, or it has been twisted behind the feeding tube.
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  Speaker 1: He added that forcible feeding was especially dangerous in cases
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  Speaker 1: of heart or lung weakness, or of rupture or hernia,
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  Speaker 1: and that the result of persistent use would be to
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  Speaker 1: seriously injure the constitution, to lacerate the parts surrounding the
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  Speaker 1: mouth to break and ruin the teeth. When the House
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  Speaker 1: of Commons met on Monday, we learned that our fears
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  Speaker 1: were only too well founded. For mister Keir Hardy drew
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  Speaker 1: from mister Masterman, who spoke on the Home Secretary's behalf,
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  Speaker 1: the admission that the suffragettes in Winston Green Jail were
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  Speaker 1: being forcibly fed by means of a tube which was
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  Speaker 1: passed through the mouth and into the stomach, and through
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  Speaker 1: which the food was pumped. The unprecedented and outrageous nature
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  Speaker 1: of the assault was glossed over by the use of
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  Speaker 1: the term hospital tree treatment in connection with it. Mister
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  Speaker 1: Masterman admitted, however, that there were no regulations which authorized
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  Speaker 1: the proceeding, but he stated that it was resorted to
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  Speaker 1: in the case of men and women prisoners who were
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  Speaker 1: weak minded or contumacious. Mister Hardy's indignant protest and reminder
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  Speaker 1: that the last man prisoner to whom such treatment had
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  Speaker 1: been meted out had died under it were met with
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  Speaker 1: shouts of laughter by the supporters of the government. Horrified
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  Speaker 1: by their heartless and unseemly levity in the face of
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  Speaker 1: so serious a question. He at once addressed a statement
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  Speaker 1: to the Press, in which he declared that he could
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  Speaker 1: not have believed that a body of gentlemen could have
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  Speaker 1: found reason for mirth and applause in a seam which
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  Speaker 1: had no parallel in the recent history of our country.
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  Speaker 1: As far as he could learn, no power to feed
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  Speaker 1: by force had been given to prison authorities, save in
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  Speaker 1: the case of persons certified to be insane. He concluded
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  Speaker 1: by warning the public of the danger that one of
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  Speaker 1: the prisoners would succumb to the so called hospital treatment,
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  Speaker 1: and by appealing to the people of these islands to
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  Speaker 1: speak out ere our annals had been stained by such
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  Speaker 1: a tragedy. Others hastened to second this protest. Mister c
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  Speaker 1: Mansell Moullin m D F R c S wrote to
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  Speaker 1: the Times, as a hospital surgeon of thirty years, standing
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  Speaker 1: to indignantly repudiate mister Masterman's use of the term hospital treatment,
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  Speaker 1: declaring that it was a foul libel, for that violence
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  Speaker 1: and brutality have no place in hospitals, as mister Masterman
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  Speaker 1: ought to know. Doctor Forbes Ross of Harley Street wrote
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  Speaker 1: to the Press, saying, as a medical man, without any
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  Speaker 1: particular feeling for the cause of the suffragettes, I consider
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  Speaker 1: that forcible feeding, by the methods employed, is an act
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  Speaker 1: of brutality beyond common endurance, and I am astounded that
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  Speaker 1: it is possible for members of Parliament, with mothers, wives
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  Speaker 1: and sisters of their own to allow it. A memorial
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  Speaker 1: signed by one hundred sixteen doctors, headed by Sir Victor
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  Speaker 1: Horsley f R C S. W. Hugh Fenton, m D,
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  Speaker 1: M A C. Mansell, Mullin m D f r C S.
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  Speaker 1: Forbes Winslow, m D and Alexander Hegg m D f
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  Speaker 1: r c P was organized by doctor Flora Murray and
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  Speaker 1: addressed to Mister Asquith, protesting against the artificial feeding of
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  Speaker 1: the Suffragette prisoners, on the ground that it was attended
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  Speaker 1: by the gravest risks and was both unwise and inhuman.
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  Speaker 1: To this memorial, many of the doctors added the scriptive
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  Speaker 1: notes of their own. Mister W. A. Davidson, m D
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  Speaker 1: f r C S wrote, a most cruel and brutal procedure.
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  Speaker 1: Were the tubes cleaned? Were they knew? If not, they
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  Speaker 1: have probably been used for people suffering from some disease.
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  Speaker 1: The inside of the tube cannot well be cleaned. Very
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  Speaker 1: often the trouble is not taken to clean them Note
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  Speaker 1: forty In spite of every form of discouragement and ridicule,
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  Speaker 1: mister keir Hardy continued constantly to raise the question of
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  Speaker 1: forcible feeding in the House of Commons, only to be
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  Speaker 1: met by evasive and sometimes grossly inaccurate replies from the
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  Speaker 1: Home Office. Mister Gladstone tried to shelter himself behind the
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  Speaker 1: officials who were his subordinates, and to place the responsibility
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  Speaker 1: on the medical officers. For this he was strongly condemned
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  Speaker 1: by the British Medical Journal, which characterized his conduct as
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  Speaker 1: contemptible note forty one. In reply to the protests of
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  Speaker 1: medical men and the memorial from doctors which had been
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  Speaker 1: addressed to him, mister Gladstone succeeded in drawing a statement
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  Speaker 1: from Sir Richard Douglas Powell, the President of the Royal
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  Speaker 1: College of Physicians, who said that he thought the memorial exaggerated.
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  Speaker 1: Though he admitted that forcible feeding was not wholly free
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  Speaker 1: from possibilities of accident with those who resist, he added
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  Speaker 1: that in dissenting from the view expressed by the memorialists,
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  Speaker 1: he was assuming that the feeding of the prison patients
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  Speaker 1: was entirely carried out by skilled nursing attendants under careful
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  Speaker 1: medical observation and control. We of course know that this
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  Speaker 1: was not the case. A large number of doctors, including
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  Speaker 1: doctor R. G. Layton, physician to the Walsall Hospital, replied
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  Speaker 1: to Sir Douglas Powell by again recapitulating the dangers of
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  Speaker 1: forcible feeding. But indeed the opinions of medical men were unnecessary.
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  Speaker 1: To those who afterwards came in contact with the woman
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  Speaker 1: who had been forcibly fed, their exhausted condition was a
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  Speaker 1: form of evidence that no argument could upset. It is
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  Speaker 1: important to note also that during the year nineteen ten,
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  Speaker 1: two ordinary criminals, a man and a woman, were subjected
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  Speaker 1: to forcible feeding. The man died during the first operation,
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  Speaker 1: the women committed suicide after the second. Meanwhile, the bulk
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  Speaker 1: of the liberal press were defending the action of their government.
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  Speaker 1: The Daily News had acclaimed Vera Figner for assaulting one
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  Speaker 1: of the Russian prison officials in order to secure better
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  Speaker 1: conditions for her fellow captives. It had characterized as the
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  Speaker 1: one healthy symptom in Spain the revolt of the Spanish
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  Speaker 1: people against their government. In regard to the Riffian War,
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  Speaker 1: though this revolt had entailed the burning down of convents
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  Speaker 1: full of women and chilnildren who were in no way
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  Speaker 1: responsible for the trouble, and other dread acts of violence.
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  Speaker 1: At the same time, in regard to events at home,
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  Speaker 1: this paper was declaring that if the House of Lords
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  Speaker 1: were to tamper with the Irish Land Bill, there would
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  Speaker 1: be no wonder if all the old methods of cattle
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  Speaker 1: driving and other violence were revived in Ireland. Yet the
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  Speaker 1: Daily News had had nothing but chiding and dispraise for
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  Speaker 1: the hunger strikers, and in regard to forcible feeding it
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  Speaker 1: now said it is the only alternative to allowing the
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  Speaker 1: women to starve themselves. Thus, the two most obvious ways
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  Speaker 1: out of the difficulty, firstly that of treating the woman
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  Speaker 1: as political prisoners, and secondly the more reasonable one of
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  Speaker 1: extending the franchise to women and thus ending the strife,
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  Speaker 1: were entirely ignored. Revolted by the hypocritical and inconsistent attitude
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  Speaker 1: of this paper, two of its foremost leader writers and
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: of the ablest journalists in the country, mister Henry Nevinson
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: and mister H. N. Brailsford, resigned their posts upon its
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: staff writing publicly to explain their reasons for so Many
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: sincere liberals resigned their memberships and official posts under the
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: Liberal Association, including the Reverend J. M. Lloyd Thomas, Minister
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: of the High Pavement Chapel, Nottingham, resigned from the Liberal Association,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: and there were many other resignations, Amongst them the following
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Missus Catherine c Osier, the President, Miss Gertrude E Southall,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: the Honorable Secretary and Missus Alice Yoaxhall, the Treasurer of
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: the Birmingham Women's Liberal Association, Missus s Red the Chairman
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: of the Eggston Women's Liberal Association, Lady Blake, the President
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: of the Berwick Women's Liberal Association, and Missus Branch one
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: of the most prominent members of the Northampton Women's Liberal Association.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: At the same time, prominent men and women of all
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: shades of opinion, including Missus Ayrton, Flora Annie Steele, Lady
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Betty Balfour, the Reverend J. R. Campbell, and the Honorable
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: HBT Strangeways, ex Premier of South Australia, appealed to the
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: government to give votes to women and bring this useless
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: warfare to an end. Meanwhile, except for the admissions of
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: mister Gladstone and mister Masterman in the House of Commons,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: nothing definite was known as to the condition of the
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: outraged prisoners. No direct communication had been held with them,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: and even a petition from their parents and relatives to
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: be allowed to send their own medical attendant into the
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: prison had been refused. The fearful anxiety and suspense endured
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: by all concerned may well be imagined again and again.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: Messrs Hatchet, Jones, Bisgood and Marshall, the solicitors engaged to
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: act on the prisoner's behalf, applied for permission to interview
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: their clients, but mister Gladstone obstinately refused until he was
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: informed that legal proceedings were being taken for assault against
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: him and the Governor and doctor of the Birmingham Prison,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: and that writs were being issued, and that Miss Laura
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Ainsworth would shortly be released so that the full details
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: would be known in any case. Thus, at last he
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: grudgingly consented to the interview, and sworn statements were made
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: by all the women. Missus Lee explained that on arriving
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: at Winston Green Jail on Wednesday, September twenty second, she
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: had broken her cell windows as a protest against the
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: prison treatment. As a punishment, she was thrust that evening
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: into a cold, dimniliate punishment cell. A plank bed was
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: brought in and she was forcibly stripped and handcuffed with
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: the hands behind during the day except at meal times,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: when the palms were placed together in front. At night,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: the hands were fastened in front with the palms out. Potatoes, bread,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: and gruel were brought into her cell on Thursday, but
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: she did not touch them, and in the afternoon she
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: was taken, still handcuffed, before the magistrates, who sentenced her
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: to a further nine days in the punishment cell. At
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: midnight on Thursday, her wrists being terribly swollen and painful,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: the handcuffs were removed. She still refused food, and on
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: Saturday she was taken to the doctor's room. Here is
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: her account of the affair. The doctor said, you must
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: listen carefully to what I have to say. My orders
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: from my superior officers. He had a blue official paper
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: in his hand to which he referred that you are
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: not to be released, even on medical grounds. If you
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: still refrain from food. I must take other measures to
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: compel you to take it. I then said, I refuse,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: and if you force food on me, I want to
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: know how you are going to do it. He said
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: that is a matter for me to decide. I said
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: that he must prove that I was insane, that the
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Lunacy Commissioners would have to be summoned to prove that
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: I was insane. I declared that forcible feeding was an
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: operation and therefore could not be performed without a sane
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: patient's consent. He merely bowed and said, those are my orders.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: She was then surrounded and held down whilst the chair
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: was tilted backwards. She clenched her teeth, but the doctor
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: pulled her mouth away to form a pouch, and the
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: wardress poured in milk and brandy, some of which trickled
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: in through the crevices. Later in the day, the doctors
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: and wardresses again appeared. They forced her down on to
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: the bed and held her there. One of the doctors
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: then produced a tube two yards in length, with a
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: glass junction in the center and a funnel at one end.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: He forced the other end of the tube up her nostril,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: hurting her so terribly that the matron and two of
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: the wardresses burst into tears, and the second doctor interfered.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: At last, the tube was pushed down into the stomach.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: She felt the pain of it to the end of
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: the breastbone. Then one of the doctors stood upon a chair,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: holding the funnel end of the tube at arm's length,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: and poured food down, whilst the wardresses and the other
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: doctor all gripped her tight. She felt as though she
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: would suffocate. There was a rushing, burning sensation in her head.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: The drums of her ears seemed to be bursting. The
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: agony of pain in the throat and breastbone continued. The
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: thing seemed to go on for hours. When at last
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: the tube was withdrawn, she felt as though all the
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: back of her nose and throat were being torn out
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: with it. Then almost fainting, she was carried back to
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: the punishment cell and put to bed for hours. The
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: pain in her chest, nose, and ears continued, and she
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: felt terribly sick and faint. Day after day the struggle continued.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: She used no violence, but each time resisted and was
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: overcome by force of numbers. Often she vomited during the operation.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: When the food did not go down quickly enough, the
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: doctor pinched her nose with the tube in it, causing
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: her even greater pain. On Tuesday afternoon, she heard miss Edwards,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: one of her fellow prisoners, cry from an open doorway
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: opposite locked in a padded cell since Sunday, then the
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: door was shut. She applied to see the visiting magistrates
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: and appeal to them on behalf of her comrade, saying
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: that she knew her to have a weak heart, but
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: was told that no prisoner could interfere on another's behalf.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: She protested by breaking the windows of the hospital cell,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: to which, owing to her weakness, she had now been taken,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: and was then thrust into the padded cell as miss
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Edwards was taken from it, the bed which she had
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: occupied being still warm. The padded cell was lined with
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: some India rubber like stuff, and she felt as though
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: she would suffocate for want of air. She was kept
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: there till Wednesday, still being fed by force. On Saturday,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: she felt that she could endure the agony of it
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: no longer, and determined to barricade her cell. She piled
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: up her bed and chair, but after three hours men
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: moartarers forced the door open with spades. Then the chief
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: warder threatened and abused her, and she was dragged back
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: to the padded cell. In Miss Ainsworth's case, the feeding
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: was done through the mouth. Her jaws were pried open
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: with a steel instrument to allow of the gag being
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: placed between her teeth. She experienced great sickness, especially when
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: the tube was being withdrawn. Miss Hildeburkeet's experiences were very dreadful.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: She had already fasted four days and was extremely weak
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: when she was seized by two doctors, four wardresses, and
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: the matron, who tried for more than half an hour
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: to force her to swallow from the feeding cup. Then
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: a tube was forced up her nose, but she succeeded
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: in coughing it back twice, and at last, very near collapse,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: she was carried to her cell and put to bed
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: by the wardresses. This will kill me sooner than starving,
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: she said, I cannot stand much more of it, but
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: I am proud you have not beaten me yet. Still
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: suffering greatly in head, nose and throat, she was left
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: alone for half an hour, and the matron and wardresses
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: then returned to persuade her to take food. On her refusal,
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: they said, well you will have to come again they
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: are waiting. Oh, surely not the torture chamber again, she cried,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: but they lifted her out of bed and carried her
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: back to the doctor's who again attempted to force her
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: to drink from the feeding cup. Still she was able
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: to resist, and then one of them said, the Home
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: Office has given me every power to use what force
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: I like. I am going to use the stomach pump.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: It is illegal and an assault. I shall prosecute you,
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: was her report. But as she spoke, a gag was
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: forced into her mouth and the tube followed. She had
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: almost fainted and felt as if she were going to die.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: And now, for some reason, the tube was withdrawn without
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: having been used. But in her great weakness, the officials
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: were now able to overcome her resistance and to pour
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: liquid into her mouth with the feeding cup. This sort
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: of thing went on day after day. On Thursday morning,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: she was unconscious when they came into her cell, and
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: they succeeded in feeding her. During the night. She was
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: in agony. She told the doctor he had given her
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: too much food, and she cried, for Mercy's sake, let
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: me be I am too tired. But Brandy and benger's
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: food were forcibly administered. During the whole month, she only
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: slept four nights. But the story of these sufferings had
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: no power to influence the government. They were determined to
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: persevere with the forcible feeding, and were so far from
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: abandoning this hateful form of torture that, evidently thinking the
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: women who had won their way out of prison by
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: the hunger strike had been let off too easily, they
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: proceeded to re arrest a number of them upon the
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: most flimsy charges. Evelyn Worry, who had been arrested with
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: missus Lee and the others, but afterwards discharged by the magistrate,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: had been refused bail between the time of her arrest
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: and trial, and kept for seventeen hours as an ordinary
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: prisoner in the insanitary police court seals. She might have
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: been thought therefore to be entitled to claim damages for
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: wrongful arrest and detention, but was nevertheless re arrested because
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: she had broken the cell window to obtain more air,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: and was sentenced either to pay a fine of eleven
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: shillings or go to prison for seven days. She chose imprisonment,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: but her fine was paid by a member of the
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: Birmingham Liberal Club. Miss Rona Robinson, Miss Florence Clarkson, Miss
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: Georgina Heelis, and Miss Bertha Brewster, who had all gone
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: through the hunger strike in Liverpool, were also summoned for
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: breaking their cell windows, in spite of the fact that
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: they had already been severely put unished in prison for
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: these offenses. On their refusal to answer the summons, warrants
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: were issued for their arrest. Rona Robinson, who was said
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: to have committed damage to the extent of two shillings,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: was arrested on October fifteenth and Manchester and was taken
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: the same night to Liverpool. Though her doctor had certified
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: her to be suffering from laryngial qatar and a weak
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: irregular action of the heart, she was sent to prison
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: for fourteen days imprisonment in the third division. Owing to
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: the state of her health, the Liverpool authorities refused to
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: take the responsibility of feeding her by force, and she
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: was accordingly released after a fast of seventy two hours.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: The other warrants were not executed for some time, that
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: against Miss Florence Clarkson being held over until December, when
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: she happened to notify the Manchester Police of a burglary
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: that had taken place in the WSPU offices in that city.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: She was then immediately arrested on the old charge. Bail
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: was refused and she was kept in custody from Saturday
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: to Monday, when she was punished by a further fortnight's
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: imprisonment for having committed damage to the value of half
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: a shilling three months before. After three days on December fifteenth,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: she was released in a state of complete collapse. The
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: warrant against Miss Bertha Brewster was held over until January,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: when she was sentenced to six weeks hard labor to
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: pay for her three point nine damage footnotes Note forty
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: Mister Gladstone afterwards stated in the house that the tubes
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: were carefully cleaned and kept in boracic solution between each operation,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: but Miss Dorothy Pethick, who was imprisoned in Newcastle, saw
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: the tube lying open and exposed in a basket in
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: the reception room. Note forty one. The British Journal of
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: Nursing stated that even under the most favorable circumstances, forcible
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: feeding required delicate manipulation, and that it was an operation
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: which would only be performed by medical practitioners or trained nurses,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: and pointed out that the prison mortresses were quite un
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: qualtullified to take part in it. End of Chapter twenty
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: one