quibbling aside as she thanked Lloyd George, in the name of the WSPU, for
dealing with the question of women’s suffrage in a practical way:
[A]lthough in times of peace we should want to debate every item of a
bill ... in war time we want to see this thing done as quickly as
possible, with as little dispute and as little difference of opinion as
possible. ... And so we ask you, Mr. Lloyd George, to give such a
Government measure to the House of Commons to vote upon as you
feel to be just and practicable in the war circumstances ... whatever
you think can be passed ... we are ready to accept. ... In this room,
where so many women have come, one cannot help feeling that there
might possibly be amongst us the spirits of those women who have died
without seeing the result of their labours and their sacrifices. It will be
a wonderful thing if in war time – just as in Canada – just as it will
come in Russia – it should come to women at the heart of the British
Empire.^116Lloyd George explained that that very morning a draft bill had been
prepared so there would be no loss of time. ‘The attitude of the Government
with regard to Women’s Suffrage will be this – that they leave the question of
voting for women as an open question ... for the House. As far as the
Government are concerned, the majority ... will vote for the inclusion of
Women’s Suffrage – for its retention.’ To ripples of laughter, the Prime Minister
pointed out that it had not been decided yet which of the two age limits
suggested for women would be inserted in the bill.^117 Emmeline, like the
majority of suffragists, had come to accept that some compromise would be
necessary, if the measure was to receive a majority vote in parliament. Although
the proposed bill would not enfranchise women on the same terms as men, the
issue on which she had campaigned so determinedly, she was prepared to accept
it, with all its limitations, unlike Sylvia, who refused to compromise on equal
adult suffrage.^118 To an enthusiastic audience at the Queen’s Hall in mid April
Emmeline said, ‘It will be 50 years on the 17th of May since John Stuart Mill
introduced the first Women’s Suffrage Bill into the House of Commons. Is it not
a remarkable thing that exactly fifty years after ... we should be on the eve of
seeing this question settled?’^119 To another audience in Glasgow, she empha-
sised that women during the war ‘had proved their capacity for the rights of
citizenship’.^120
Nevertheless, vestiges of the old mistrust of Asquith, who had moved in
March the resolution in favour of the bill, remained. Emmeline was still deeply
sceptical about his supposed conversion to the women’s cause and fearful lest
women should be ‘cheated & betrayed’ again. ‘He wants the support of women
at the next election & this is how he gets it.’^121 Further, she was worried that all
could be threatened by the level of industrial militancy in Britain, disputes and
strikes having now reached threatening proportions. Both she and Christabel
WAR WORK AND A SECOND FAMILY