Books’ that listed the convictions and release of WSPU members, as well as
expenses incurred on various journeys, and a log that detailed Emmeline’s own
expenses, including travel and taxi fares.^15 Emmeline took some comfort in the
knowledge that raids were expected and that the WSPU was run as an army,
with understudies ready to undertake the duties of those arrested. Thus Grace
Roe took over Annie Kenney’s role as Chief Organiser. Further, The Suffragette
continued to appear weekly, as different presses printed it, and women were
soon allowed to enter WSPU headquarters although two policemen stood on
duty outside.^16
Emmeline, whose priority now was to fully recover her health so that she
could still be an effective leader, decided to leave London for the fresh air and
peace and quiet of the Surrey countryside. On 2 May, accompanied by Nurse
Pine, she travelled in an ambulance to Coign; Ethel Smyth was not there but on
the continent. Although the police were notified of Emmeline’s plan, and raised
no objection, detectives in a fast car followed her all the way. Immediately she
arrived, they guarded the cottage on all sides amid rumours that she might even
try to escape to France by aeroplane.^17 Emmeline was not fit enough to attend
any of the gatherings held on Sunday, 4 May, the culmination of weeks of angry
protest against the government’s action in prohibiting public meetings. But
WSPU members, with their flags, were amongst the large crowd of 30,000 that
gathered in Trafalgar Square, and in the brief meetings, broken up by the police,
held in Hyde Park.^18 These gatherings were an indication that there was anger,
at least amongst socialist and suffrage groupings as well as some members of the
general public, at the government’s oppressive treatment of the militants. The
following day, Emmeline felt much better, her spirits lifted, and she wrote a
chirpy letter to Ethel:
To-day I had a glass of champagne, and fish. ... All the old Adam (or,
Eve, which is better) is coming back, and I begin to realise the glorious
fight ahead of me when the 15 days are up. O kind fate that cast me for
this glorious role in the history of women!^19As Emmeline’s correspondence with Ethel reveals vividly, her temperament was
one of sunshine and showers, of highs and lows.^20 In buoyant mood, she
prepared for her followers a suitably upbeat statement. ‘We shall pass in triumph
through this new crisis. Be calm, be strong, be faithful to one another and to the
Union, and all will be well.’^21
But triumph seemed to be far away since on 6 May a private member’s bill to
enfranchise women of twenty-five years and upwards, who were householders or
the wives of householders, was defeated by 47 votes on its second reading in the
Commons.^22 That same day the arson campaign took a different turn as empty
churches, such as St. Catherine’s, Hatcham, South London, were destroyed by
fire. The public condemnation expressed in all the major newspapers, fuelled by
subsequent fears about a bomb in St. Paul’s Cathedral,^23 was undoubtedly
PRISONER OF THE CAT AND MOUSE ACT