community. My war experience and my experience on the other side of
the Atlantic, particularly in Canada, where I have spent a considerable
time, have changed my views profoundly. Then came the general
strike, and I saw that there were only two issues before the country, and
that anyone who had the real interests of women at heart would stand
firmly behind Mr. Baldwin and the Government. I am now an
Imperialist.^13Emmeline had turned to the Conservative Party as the key political force
that would uphold the British Constitution and Empire, support democracy,
advance the cause of women and resist communism. As she later emphasised at
a talk at the Ladies’ Carlton Club, at which Mrs. Baldwin was the guest of
honour, she thought there were only two parties in British politics – the
Constitutional Party, represented by Stanley Baldwin and the Conservatives,
and the Revolutionary Party which would destroy the material and spiritual
aspects of Christian civilisation. ‘The women in this country number eight
million voters’, she told her audience. ‘If we can get these eight million voters
on our side then we can save the situation. If you can only convince the ordi-
nary woman that her home is threatened, her religion is threatened, and even
her security in marriage is threatened, then we shall have her support.’^14
Although Emmeline had no particular constituency in mind for her candida-
ture, she hoped to stand for a London division. Meanwhile she took part in the
great Equal Franchise Demonstration, held on 3 July, to demand votes for
women on the same terms as men. Emmeline was a Vice President of the
demonstration’s council, as were Charlotte Despard and Emmeline Pethick
Lawrence, but the higher posts of Honorary President and President were held
by Millicent Garrett Fawcett, now a Dame, and Eleanor Rathbone,
respectively.^15 Emmeline’s participation in the demonstration was merely a
gesture since she had played her part in securing a promise from Baldwin to
implement an equal franchise, a theme of his address in the Albert Hall some
two months previously.^16
Emmeline now began campaigning on behalf of the Conservative Party,
touring rural Norfolk that August. In mid July she had written to Esther Greg,
‘I have not yet succeeded in getting a car but am trying more people today. It is
so many years since the old campaigning days when one could always get them
easily.’ Esther had taken the hint and offered her own vehicle, which was
gratefully received. In mid August, Emmeline wrote again, from The Feathers
Inn, Holt, expressing the hope that Esther could join her in a forthcoming by-
election campaign but warning, ‘I will go if they pay my expenses although one
is always out of pocket at the end! I shall be when the Norfolk tour is finished
I know. However I have had a small unexpected windfall that will meet that.
So all is well.’ Back home in early September, Emmeline pessimistically
reported to Esther that, ‘Something will have to be done if the agricultural
counties are to be kept for the Con. Party.’^17 Communist Party members were
CONSERVATIVE PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATE