Conciliation Bill, Emmeline and the other WSPU leaders decided to suspend
the anti-Liberal government policy, provided candidates stated their support for
the bill and agreed not to support widening amendments which would make it
unacceptable to Conservative supporters; each individual by-election candidate,
irrespective of their political allegiance, would now be assessed by the WSPU in
regard to these issues. It would appear that only two Liberal candidates were
vigorously opposed by the WSPU during the time this policy was in opera-
tion.^69 This new direction emphasised both the willingness of the WSPU
leadership to bend to changing circumstances as well as its optimism that the
votes for women question could finally be settled. The new policy was put into
action when Emmeline joined in early July the by-election campaign at
Wellington, West Somerset where she accidentally left her purse behind. On 8
July, when staying at the Plume of Feathers Hotel, Minehead, she wrote a
grateful note to Ada Flatman, thanking her for sending the lost property. The
same day she also wrote to Helen Archdale who had recently informed
Emmeline that Adela was ill with a sore throat. ‘I think she ought to take her
holiday as soon as possible’, advised a worried Emmeline, ‘& not speak more
than she can help or even talk which I suppose she would think a very hard
saying!’ After thanking Helen for looking after Adela, Emmeline closed her
letter, ‘Love to A & the children’.^70 Then it was back to London for a big
meeting at the London Pavilion on 17 July where a jubilant Emmeline was
greeted with prolonged cheering as she said that very soon votes for women
would be ‘an accomplished fact’.^71
Now that the summer had arrived, Emmeline welcomed the chance to leave
dusty London and go campaigning in Wales. On 31 July she wrote from
Llandrindod Wells to Miss Birnstingl, thanking her for the pleasant rest she had
provided at Colwyn Bay. ‘I feel much refreshed & stronger. ... We arrived here
safely but very late after many adventures on mountainous roads & in thunder
storms.’^72 At a particularly successful meeting held in Llandudno, she warned,
‘Suffragists did not mind open opponents like Lord Cromer or Mrs. Humphrey
Ward. It was opponents who were not so outspoken who were dangerous. They
were wolves in sheep’s clothing.’^73 Her words had a particular resonance over
the coming weeks since behind the scenes, Lloyd George was working against
the Second Conciliation Bill. In mid August, while Emmeline was in Scotland,
Votes for Womenreported that Leif Jones, MP, had asked whether the govern-
ment’s promise of facilities for next session applied to any woman suffrage bill or
exclusively to the Conciliation Bill, and that Lloyd George, in the absence of
the Prime Minister, was reported to have replied that the promise of facilities
was given for the Conciliation Bill; but he also added that any bill capable of
free discussion and amendment which secured a second reading would be
treated by the government as falling within their engagement. If the statement
was accurate, opined Votes for Women, then the government was breaking faith
not only with the Conciliation Committee but also the woman suffrage soci-
eties and could expect the WSPU to ‘revert to a state of war’.^74
THE TRUCE RENEWED