‘Adventist’ in the sense that she expected the return of Christ, an important
message that needed to be proclaimed, especially since His return was consid-
ered imminent.^81 In the 1918 December election, Christabel appears not to
have spoken of Adventism to the electors. An outsider to the constituency, she
had had just three weeks to campaign and according to Elsie Bowerman seemed
somewhat aloof from the voters, unable to establish ‘the homely human
contacts’ which win votes.^82 Further, her anti-socialist jibes in an industrial,
working-class area had aroused some hostility. However, Emmeline would
tolerate no talk about Christabel’s defeat bringing an end to her daughter’s
possible career in politics; she would have none of it. Ever optimistic, she wrote
to Ethel Smyth that she pinned her hopes on Christabel’s success at some by-
election.^83
Tired and deflated after the hopes of the election campaign, Emmeline trav-
elled with Catherine Pine to Paris for the New Year of 1919 for a much needed
change of scene. She met up with old friends, including Alice Morgan Wright
and Eleanor Garrison. When they all dined at Alice’s studio, ‘Mrs. P. was
geniality itself ’, commented Eleanor, ‘& there was no end of talk of militant
experiences. She can talk books & pictures & social life as well & is just as
charming as one could wish.’ Catherine Pine appeared ‘a most amusing person
& she makes Mrs. Pankhurst laugh & laugh’. Emmeline, in her turn, invited
some of her friends to a meal at an excellent restaurant, La Maisonette.^84 But all
was not play. Emmeline wanted to keep an eye on the Peace Conference which
began on 18 January and would involve negotiations, over six months, with
thirty-seven nations; although peace had returned to the Western fronts,
fighting was continuing elsewhere, particularly in Russia where a civil war
raged. Neither the old Russia nor the Soviet Union sent delegates to the talks
but the threat of a ‘Bolshevik tide’^85 cast a long shadow over the proceedings
which made her extremely anxious. She did not want Germany nor Bolshevism
to be influential in the post-war situation and feared that too much would be
given away to the defeated enemy at the possible cost of weakening the alliance
between Britain and France. She lost no opportunity while in Paris to discuss
the situation with influential persons who would listen, including the French
Foreign Minister, Monsieur Briand whom she met at a social gathering at the
home of one of Ethel Smyth’s friends.^86
Despite her worries about the peace process, Emmeline arrived back home in
March in joyful mood since she had heard that a parliamentary seat was likely
to become vacant in April; the MP for the Westminster Abbey division had
stated that he thought he should retire from parliament, owing to poor health.
Immediately Emmeline penned a letter asking members of the Women’s Party
for donations to fund a campaign to support Christabel’s candidature. ‘We look
upon Westminster as an ideal constituency for us to contest. When John Stuart
Mill introduced the question of Women’s Suffrage in the House of Commons he
was its member.’ The Abbey Division of Westminster was the premier
constituency of the country since it contained ‘Westminster Abbey, the Houses
LEADER OF THE WOMEN’S PARTY