If Emmeline had been ignorant of these developments, the Billington-Greig
attack would have opened her eyes and made her more determined, through her
personal influence, to hold the WSPU together. In an organisation with no
written constitution, her charismatic power as its leader was critical. Her long
years of political activism, in both the socialist and women’s movements, had
taught her that divisions and strife were almost inevitable. It was during this
troubled time that Ethel Smyth, a well-known modern composer of a Mass in D
as well as three operas – Fantasio, Der Wald and The wreckers – entered
Emmeline’s life.
Ethel had written to Emmeline the previous September, wondering if she
could be of any practical use to the militants, whom she greatly admired but
from whom she had held aloof for some time; she had subsequently abandoned
her musical career, joined the WSPU in order to devote two years to the
women’s cause, and composed for the Union a tune titled ‘The march of the
women’, to which Cecily Hamilton then fitted the words.^13 ‘The march of the
women’ was first performed on 21 January 1911, at a welcome social evening for
released prisoners. Emmeline spoke with emotion in her voice as, before the
music was sung, she introduced the composer, a woman who was to become one
of her closest friends over the next few years. ‘Although others may find better
words in which to thank Dr. Smyth, no one could feel as deeply as I do the grat-
itude for her services to the women’s cause that I so feebly express to-night.’
The stirring march was then sung by a choir to a rapturous welcome from the
audience; from now on this hymn and call to battle became the anthem of the
WSPU, replacing the ‘Women’s Marseillaise’.^14
During January and February, the WSPU renewed its truce, engaging in no
militant action, since there was some uncertainty about the status of a women’s
suffrage measure in the new parliament, which first met on 6 February. Yet
again, the Liberal Party was returned to power, the composition of the new
House of Commons being very much the same as before; Asquith was reap-
pointed as prime minister. Although no reference was made to women’s suffrage
during the King’s Speech, three MPs who were members of the Conciliation
Committee secured the first three places in the private members’ ballot and Sir
George Kemp, who drew first place, announced that he would sponsor a woman
suffrage bill. The Conciliation Bill was now revised; the £10 qualification, to
which Lloyd George amongst others had objected, was dropped and the new bill
now related only to women with a household qualification in the hope that it
would make amendment possible and also attract more support.^15
Emmeline, despite her misgivings about any support from Asquith for a
woman suffrage measure, continued to campaign vigorously over the coming
months for the Second Conciliation Bill which was due to have its second
reading on 5 May. She now had a new chauffeur, Aileen Preston, the first
woman to qualify for the Automobile Association Certificate in Driving, and
also a new car, a large Wolseley, given to her by Mary Dodge, a wealthy
American patron of Ethel Smyth who gave the musician £100 a year for life and
THE TRUCE RENEWED