and the setting up of an alternative government, sought a peaceful solution to
the crisis rather than to arrest and imprison the ringleaders. In early March,
Carson suddenly announced that he could not commit the Unionists to women
suffrage, since his colleagues were not united upon the matter and he did not
wish to cause dissent by introducing the issue; further, the proposed provisional
government was only a larger extension of local government and, as such, the
only possible basis for voting was the municipal register.^8 Dorothy Evans,
Organiser for the Ulster WSPU, declared war on Carson and on the Ulster
Unionist Parliamentary Committee, and soon after the WSPU began an arson
campaign in Northern Ireland which included damage amounting to £20,000 to
Abbeylands, a large mansion on the grounds of which the Ulster Unionists held
military drills.^9 The lessons of the successful way in which the militancy of
Ulster men had influenced the Liberal government were not lost upon
Emmeline or Christabel. As The Suffragettelater commented, the government
dare coerce only women, whom they would arrest and forcibly feed. ‘Of men –
especially of armed men – they are afraid.’^10
On the very day that Carson had announced his turnabout, 9 March,
Emmeline courted arrest again when she was advertised as the main speaker at a
public meeting to be held in St. Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow, at 8 p.m. The night
before she had written to Ethel giving details of her eventful journey to
Scotland, revealing how perilous travelling could be:
Here I am writing to you in bed in a Scotch Manse sheltered by a
parson of the Church of Scotland! I got here last night after an adven-
turous journey from the South of England. One entire night was spent
in a car. Our motor lights failed, and we could not find the house
where we were to sleep in the dark. After trying vainly from 1 a.m.
until 3.30 I decided I must sleep, so curled up in the bottom of the car
and slept peacefully until six o’clock, to be roused by an inquisitive
farm labourer who saw an apparently deserted car and found two
women asleep inside and a chauffeur ditto on the box seat. Then in the
morning light we found the house. I had breakfast and went to bed
until lunch. We had a hired car which did all the dreadful things
possible, brakes getting out of order, burst tyres in places where nothing
could be done, etc. Still here I am, in time for the Glasgow meeting to-
morrow. I hope to get through the Scotch meetings untaken and to get
to Ireland. If all goes well I will write to you again from there.
There is now a Scotch bodyguard and they are eager for the fray.
Whatever happens will hit the Government. If I get away they will be
laughed at, if I am taken people will be roused. The fools hurt them-
selves every time. Everybody is very kind to me, and I am waited on
and coddled far too much. Bless you, don’t worry! Try to rejoice in the
sportingness of it all!^11FUGITIVE