concerned that autumn about the war situation in Greece and Romania – and
about the spread of VD amongst the troops. The issue of venereal diseases, of
course, had been raised as a key theme in the later years of the WSPU’s militant
campaign, and so she had no hesitation in putting her name, alongside other
well-known women such as Margaret Mcmillan, Mrs. Lloyd George and Dr.
Flora Murray, to a letter published in The Timesinviting ‘all mothers and wives’
to join in demanding notification of the disease. ‘Soldiers’ mothers write that
they have given their sons to die for the Empire, but not like this.’ It cannot be
generally known that the disease is now ‘very largely spread by girls of between
15 and 18 years of age. Can we wait while these mere children ... become the
mothers of the future generation, and give birth to children more miserable
than themselves?’^106
Christabel in Paris continued in Britanniaher attacks on Asquith and Grey,
claiming they were giving Germany a free hand in the Balkans and threatening
to bring ruin to the British Empire. On the 13 December 1916, the offices of
the printers were again raided, the police seizing all the printed matter and
breaking up the type.^107 In spite of this difficulty, the paper was still printed. It
was an important part of Emmeline’s and Christabel’s strategy that Britannia
should continue its anti-government attacks, pointing out that the war effort
was being mismanaged; it might force the resignation of Asquith and other
ministers and it also gave some support to Emmeline’s threat that, once peace
came again, she could ‘reassemble her party’ and those troublesome women
could ‘begin militancy where it had left off ’.^108 Emmeline was relieved the
December day that Asquith resigned as Prime Minister, to be replaced by Lloyd
George, but still concerned about the credentials of some members of the
Foreign Office. She went to see the jubilant newspaper proprietor Lord
Northcliffe, who claimed that the campaign he had mounted through the right-
wing newspapers he owned, had been effective. ‘[H] was quite like a lunatic,
bouncing up and down on the leather seat of his arm-chair, crying out, “I did
it!”, timing the “I” to the down-bounce.’ An embarrassed Emmeline remarked
that the worst of the lot, the Foreign Secretary, was still in office, and was some-
what startled when Northcliffe leapt up and shouted, ‘Don’t you worry, my dear
girl, I’ll get ’em all out!’^109 When, in the New Year of 1917, Christabel returned
from Paris to live with Emmeline, at 50 Clarendon Road, she was delighted –
and grateful. Britanniahad been raided again, and life at WSPU headquarters
was becoming increasingly difficult. Emmeline, as Honorary Treasurer of the
WSPU, was still writing begging letters to members and supporters, asking for
donations to carry on ‘our Patriotic work’,^110 and so was pleased to have her
patriotic daughter by her side.
Some welcoming news abroad about women’s enfranchisement greeted
Emmeline that New Year, namely that Manitoba had granted women the vote,
a move soon followed by other Canadian provinces, and also New York. In
Britain too, the attitude towards women’s suffrage had changed; Emmeline’s
policy of campaigning for women’s right to serve the nation in its time of crisis
WAR WORK AND A SECOND FAMILY