property is as greatly endangered by women as it was by the Chartists of
old days – do so.
And my last word is to the Government. I incite this meeting to
rebellion. (Tremendous applause and great enthusiasm). You have not
dared to take the leaders of Ulster for their incitement. Take me if you
dare! (‘Bravo!’) But if you dare, I tell you this – that so long as those
who incite to armed rebellion and the destruction of human life in
Ulster are at liberty you will not keep me in prison. (Great applause).^1Emmeline’s defiant note, that she would fight alone, if need be, that the
cowardly government was employing a double standard in the lenient way it
treated the Ulster male leaders in comparison with the harsh punishment
inflicted upon herself, that she could not be kept in prison, evoked admiration
from her appreciative audience. Even the sisters of the deposed Emmeline
Pethick Lawrence, who knew the inside story of the split, fell under her sway.^2
George Lansbury and Mabel Tuke were then called upon to speak, followed by
Annie Kenney who announced that at the next election, if a Labour man –
with the exception of Mr. Lansbury – stood for parliament at a by-election, the
WSPU would oppose him as well as government candidates.^3 Annie was
echoing here the words of Christabel who, in that week’s The Suffragette,
outlined in detail the anti-Labour Party policy.^4 It was left to Emmeline to
explain to a bewildered Daily Heraldreporter that this policy did not mean that
the WSPU was against socialism:
We are not going to oppose Socialism. We are not out against Labour
and Socialist ideals. It is the party we are going to fight. ... As a party,
the Labour men are forming a section of the Coalition Government. It
is that Government whom we look upon as the enemy, and we cannot
treat one part of that army differently from any other part. ... With the
rank and file of the party we have no quarrel. They, we believe, are
with us. Our resolution, passed over and over again in the East End
campaign and elsewhere, shows that plainly enough. I am receiving
letters frequently from working men and women up and down the
country in support of the movement, and I am convinced there is a
real and profound discontent amongst such Labour people at the inac-
tion of their representative. ... [Labour men] must get the party to
pledge itself to make votes for women the foremost thing in their
Parliamentary programme.^5Despite the enthusiasm at the Albert Hall meeting, most WSPU members
were shocked by the news of the split; just £3,600 was taken in the collection
and promises of further donations, an indication, perhaps, of divided loyalties
amongst the rank-and-file.^6 It would appear that while a number of WSPU
members accepted the reasons for the split, agreeing with their leader that it was
HONORARY TREASURER OF THE WSPU AND AGITATOR