IN THE SQUARE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1855, 15 September 1913, Page 7

IN THE SQUARE.

THE RED CAPS. "SYLVIA" AND THE EABT-ENDER&I [BT S. V. B&acueb.] London, August 1. Everybody who lias discubsed tho publi'J affairs of New Zeaknd, as compared with, those of Great Britain, t has either made or heard tho remark: "It's so much oasier to got things dono in .New Zealand," and usually tho oxplai nation haß followed: "John bull is bo conservative," or else, "Vested inter- • , ests are so poworful at Homo." But i there is another explanation: there aro [ about 45 million people in tho United' i Kingdom, and only about- one million.' ' in Now Zealand. Great meetings, iml pressive ■ demonstrations —greater and [ moro impressive in themselves than it • • . would be possiblo' to hold in Now Zeai land —aro. soon liero, not aB tho solo , events of the day, but as moro isolated j patches of excitement amidst a form-' 1 . less welter of indifference and oonflicti iug agitations.. This is one of tho rea- . sons why tho women's suffrage move- , | ment, though it is probably tho biftgesi public movement of modern times, t has not yet achieved its goal. It may, • be true that Governments are becoming moro bureaucratic, and therefore r less sensitivo to any sort of public out--5 cry, but it is cortainly truo that hero in England, and especially in this, vast confused London, with its seven millions of miscellaneous inhabitants, every, popular outcry may bo taken as tha voipe, not of tho people, but of what ; i controversialists call "a section." And yot last Sunday's demonstration | in Trafalgar Square, when Miss Sylvia 5 Pankhurst, for tho second timo within. recent weeks, led a rush towards ing Street, seemed really sigmfijfMt. . The crowd was not half so laree . which-F had seen only tho (lay before j at tho law-abiding Suffragists' donjon- s stration in Hyde Park, but it was nearly as big as the Square would hold, and its composition was remarkable. It consisted mainly of men, aud a very i large proportion'were working men and j East-cnders. Tho East End branoh of tho W.SIP.U. and ono of tho more revolutionary of the men's organisations for women's' suffrage had arranged tho demonstration, and it began with a procession from somowhere down White--3 chapel way to tlio Square. " The crowd l was already immenso when i the proccssion arrived. It was inarch- ' ing to the strains of tho Marseillaise, and was headed by scarlet Caps of Liberty, borne on the fiagstaffs from which • thero drooped and fluttered the familiar green, white and purple of ,the Sufb fragettes. Tho swaying group of patches 1 of bright oolours moved on, through 3 tho dim but sun-flooded air, above tho i shouting multitude, past the grey buildi ings, forward tq tho groat black monuc ment where the colossal bronze lions- ' J sat as upon tho heads. of the jieoplo, s and t'lio tall column uphold 'tho Nolson . Statue against tho blue sky liko an ■ Olympian doit.y untroubled by tho frettings of tho humankind that swarmed below. Tho putting of the caps • upou tho flagstaffs was moro than ,a. gay show. It was a piece of secular ritual which indicated tho i spirit of tho occa--1 sion. Tho revolutionary element of tha East End had joined hands with tho : militant suffragists; a discontented proletariat was rallying round tlw " ladies. . q One know that tho question in every- , body's mind was: "Is Sylvia Pankhurst • lieroP" Should sho bo seen, by tha 5 police, she was liable to bo arrested. Her s license under tho Cat-and-Mouso Act had expired several days beforo, but she. had emerged to speak, at' a meeting down East, and tho crowd had kept tha police away from her. Sho had been living among the poor, and had become ■ tho popular horoino of tho East End. And now sho had ann6unced through the revolutionary paper, . the "Daily s Herald," that she would address tho s crowd that Sunday afternoon from tha _ plinth of tho Nelson column. And she a did.' A j>alo-faoed woman in a green dress had just' finished an exceedingly address; ("It's Sirs. Watson, of Poplar," a-man had said inreplytomy questions; "I've worked with 'or 'usband at the docks. 'E's only gotl ting about fivo days' work a week, an' • slio makes blouses.") There was a movement among the olosely-paokcd | people on tho plinth, and a young./ !. woman of middle height, dressed rathorj j ordinarily, almost shaobily, in a coat and' f skirt of a small black and white check pattern and a shapeless black hat, camo' to tho front. The tremendous outburst of cheering and clapping told at once that this was "Sylvia. _, The old dress and hat were a disguise which, with the assistance of a veil that sho 1 had thrown off, may liavo dccoivod tho i polico. It came .out afterwards that ? there wero other women dressed exactly u liko her for the samo purpose. Her . round and rathor chubby face would liavo been pleasant under happier circumstances. It was very palo, but whether from' excitement or from tho effects of tho hunger strike, ono could 0 not tell. Hor voico was high and clear, s but sho leaned with ono arm upon tho arm of a friend, and onco I thought t saw a masculino hand supporting her at tho waist. Beforo hor tho helmots of tho policc," who wero standing closo against tho plinth, showed liko a row of footlights. 1 On either sido of her, and out to tha .. edge of tho plinth, men and women f pressed close together, as though to 0 catch her every syllable, and watch her f every gesture, and protect her from any assailant. Out in tho crowd emotional young women sobbfid and cried, "Oh,-, they'll tako'her 1 They'll tako her!' • but even these wero soon hushed into 3 eager listening. The only peoplo who 3 soomed quite unconcerned wero the pro- ] gramme men— ("Two pence. '• Names of t all tho speakers") and tlio_ sweet-moat - sellers ("Very " refreshing. Olio 1 penny.")—who, as their custom is, threaded their way through tho crowd, hut wero'met this timo with cries of "Hushl". ' Someone handed Miss Pankhurst a' bundlo of papers. Sho held them aloft. Tlioy wero declarations of independence, 3 'sho said, signed by mon'- and women in 3 East London, demanding tho voto this 5 year. Sho called upon everybody to go with her to Downing Street and deliver thoso documents. Then, whilo - tho cheoring was still at, its height, sho . turnod, and plunged through the denso ) mass of hor admirers, and mado for tho i far sido of tho -monument towards s Whitehall and Downing Street, llor r audienco streamed off. in tho samo di'rec--1 tinn, and tho great spaco on tho north" fc sido of tho monument lay almost empty. What followed \vas more than any r ono person could soo, but papers tell n of a bodyguard of fifty young men surJ rounding Miss Pankhurst when slip ; jumped off tho' plinth, and rushing witli her towards Whitehall. Tlioro wero '25 . arrests, and most of tho prisoners aro still in gaol. Miss Pankhurst was caught, and takon back to resumo' tho huneer strike, to which blio declarod sho would now add a thirst strike. Her tippoaranco as a leader of-- tho . East End Revolutionaries is but ono 1 of tlmnow features of the Suffrage agi- ; tation. Another is the "Cat and \ Mouse Act," which is. tho' subject of . protests from far boyond tha ranks of the militants. Tho latest of these protests comes from a number of clergymen, including two bishops and three i canons, who insist on seeing Mr. As- ; ' quith, next week. Tho rooont attempts. to interfere with freedom ofspeoch and : of publication have likowiso caused : some transfer of sympathy from tho a.u- 1 • thorlties to the woman ( and, in general, tho feeling is ono of orisis.