MRS. PANKHURST AND THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2462, 15 May 1915, Page 11

MRS. PANKHURST AND THE WAR

DUTY—NOT BIGHTS. March 4. 1913. Mrs. Pankhurst booed and jeered at by a threatening crowd when she went to address a meeting at the London Pavilion on votes for women. She escaped by a side entrance.

March 8, 1916,

Mrs. Pankhurst received with wild and freuzied acclamations when she spoke at the London Pavilion on "Women and the War." The stage was heaped with bouquets.

And yet March 4, 1913, was a day when we were at peace, and March 8, 1915, was a day that found us at war. In peace time the woman militant has to face the cla nour of the people, though fear has no part in the composition of Mrs. Pankhurst; in war time the woman militant who cries a truce iB given the most flattering ovation. Every night for a week Mrs. Pankhurst spoke from the stage of the London Pavilion, and every night sho was cheered as one cheors a popular heroine. At all times Mrs. Pankhurst is worth listening to, for she is one of the few women of to-day who can speak eloquently. in finished sentences; in war time, when thpre is no passion in her words, no terrible stinging scorn in her phrases, she is even more attractive an orator because, of the new quality of restraint that comes into her speech. The few minutes she has spoken each night during the week she has hold the audience spellbound, s.o much so that thev have not dared to interrupt even with their applause. Her theme is "Woman and the War," and this, in essence, is what she says and the form in which she says it: —

"Before saying what I have to say to this splendid audience, I feel I _ must refer to the last occasioi on which I was present ill this hall. We wore engaged at that time, in internal warfare • —warfare' on " the part of women who were denied by the Government of the country what they considered their legitimate rights of citizenship—ahd in coming here to-night 1 want to say how glad I am to be speaking again in the very same hall where scenes of so very painful a character then occurred. "AVhen I came here before we were fighting about rights; to-night we are fighting for duties. In face of the terrible danger to our national existence people have to forget their rights and think only of their duties ..

'I am thankful and proud to say to-