women’s suffrage measure from the ‘unwilling grasp’ of the new government
would be more successful if they worked in London, the home of parliamentary
democracy. ‘Then only, never before and never after, did I see her flinch’, recol-
lected the daughter. ‘We can’t afford it’, Emmeline replied sharply, repeating the
statement as Christabel pleaded.^81 Emmeline who, in most cases, paid her own
travelling expenses as well as those of some other WSPU members, knew that
her limited income would not stretch to covering the cost of intensive
campaigning far from her Manchester base; the previous month, she had had to
raffle one of Sylvia’s painting in order to raise money for fares for London. Nor
could she afford to give up her job as a Registrar which she was in constant
danger of losing. Christabel, with ‘the daring faith of youth’, was determined
that money should not defeat their aims and since she herself was unable to
leave Manchester until she had taken her final degree exams, asked Annie
Kenney if she would go to London.^82 Annie agreed. Emmeline advanced £2 to
the inexperienced twenty-six-year-old to ‘rouse’ London and warned her not to
speak to any man in the street other than a policeman.^83
FOUNDATION AND EARLY YEARS OF THE WSPU