The Otago Witness.

Otago Witness, Issue 2896, 15 September 1909, Page 43

The Otago Witness.

AN ENGLISH SUFFRAGETTE.

CFeom Our. Own Cobeispondent.l LONDON, July 23. Miss Florence E. Ccok contributes the following account of her experiences in Holloway Prison : — " On Monday, July 12, I was sent to prison for six weeks for the part I had taken in the women's dDmon-

stration on June 29. On Monday last I was set at liberty. For five days and six hours I have been without food, and for five days I have been shut up in a punishment cell in Holloway — a cell which I can only fitly describe as a dungeon, and which I do not believe anyone, outside of the officials of Holloway, could believe to exist in civilised England in the twentieth century.

" When we got to Holloway on the ni^ht of Monday, July 12, we determined to protest against being imprisoned in the second division, as common criminals On Tuesday, as we wer- not placv-d in the first division, we decided to break all the prison regulations. We sans? aloud ' The Marseillaise.' When the governor came to see me on Tuesday morning I said to him, ' Can

[ you not let us have any air in these cells?' i and he said, 'It is impossible for you to ' have any rrore than you get now.' I said , to- him, 'We shall, then, have to find a | means for ourselves.' The wardress came , to me, and said I was to cle.ir up my cell. I refused. When they had left I brok^ three panes of glass in my cell windows, and in that way 1 was abh ;<- get air to 1 breathe.

"On Wodaesday afternoon our cell door was flung open. 'Come "at once,' I was told. I took up my bag to bring that with me, but it was taken from me by force. I was then caken downstairs, and found in a toon: a committee of some 20 magistrates, and I was asked whether I had any reason why T should not be punished I explained to them that I had taken part in a political act, and I refused to bi treated as :i com-

i>ion criminal. fhev sontenced me to seven days' solitar\ confinement in the punishment cell. THE PUNISHMENT CELL. " I shall t ever forget the horrible place into whic'i I was taken. When 1 saw the damp, underground dungeon into which they led me I could have cried bitterly, but somehow the spirit always comes to

you when yon are fighting for principje, and I determined to sttfpdmy ground. The place was horribly dirty, and seemed full of all kinds of germs." "-There was scarcely any ventilation, iind no light except that whioh cams from a thick skylight in the ceiling, sd that the place was nearly dark. The only bed in the room was a piece of uood let into the wall The whole place scorned to m-e as if it had not been used

for a very long time, and was dark and damp. I saw that nil means of protest had been taken from me except one, and that was to do what Miss Wallace Dunlop had donp, and refuse to take any food. "The hardest time was the first 24 hours. Ml'.k was brought to me, which I felt I could have taken very willingly, but I put it from me. Then the wardress brought me in son-o food. I said to her,

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 190§.

: Will you please take that out?' She refused. I therefore took the tin in which it was and rolled" it out of the cell, and what ' was 'jn it went upon the ground. Oa Friday T took' to" my bed, "and the" doctor told me that if I persisted "I* should get fever; but I was absolutely" determined 'to do my part at whatever sacrifice. On ' Sunday night I was taken to the hospital,' and there a fresh eFort was made to gel; "me

to take food. Medicine v*t*3 brought tome, which I absolutely refused, knowing that it was either food in another form, or else intended to aggravate my hunger. On Monday afternoon my head was exceedingly bad, and I felt that I hardly knew what I was doing, but I determined, that I would not give in. In the evening the governor i*anr'e to me and said, 'I haveorders to release you.' "