On 17 October 1912, Emmeline Pankhurst stood alone on the platform at the
Albert Hall. There was a tense feeling amongst her audience since the state-
ment about the split had appeared that morning in bothVotes for Womenand
The Suffragette, circulated one day earlier than their scheduled publication
date. The rank-and-file membership had had no say in the expulsion of the
Pethick Lawrences and now Emmeline had to draw on all her powers of
persuasion to present thefait accomplias a favourable move, that was only a
small part of a much broader and more important initiative. After emphasising
the need for unity of purpose and of policy, Emmeline made a brief reference to
the statement and began to outline the new militant policy which would
include relentless opposition not only to the party in power, the Liberals, but
also the Irish and Labour Parties which supported the anti-suffrage govern-
ment. With great mastery and emotion, she carried her audience with her as
she explained how militant women were the victims rather than perpetrators of
violence, including sexual violence (‘outrages’), and how they were a fighting
force for the progress of all women in a society which upheld a double moral
standard:
Now, why are we militant? ... I tell you, women, in this hall that you
who allow yourselves to be tricked by the excuses of politicians, have
not yet awakened to a realisation of the situation. The day after the
outrages in Wales, I met some of the women who had exposed them-
selves to the indecent assaults of that mob. (‘Shame!’) ... one woman
... said she did not feel she could even tell her husband or her son the
nature of the assault, and then I said to her – ‘How could you bear it?’
... And she said, ‘All the time I thought of the women who day by day,
and year by year, are suffering through the White Slave Traffic’ -
(‘Shame’). ... In our speeches on Woman Suffrage, we have not dwelt
very much on that horrible aspect of women’s lives, because some of us
felt that to think of those things, to speak very much about them, was
apt to cause a state of feeling which would make it impossible for us to
carry on our work with cheerful hearts ... until women have the Vote,