SPEECH ABANDONED.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 30, 18 January 1912, Page 3

SPEECH ABANDONED.

MISCONDUCT OF MILITANT SUFFRAGETTES.

THE BRUTISH PREMIER 'REFUSED A HEARING.

Mr Asquith was to have been the chief speaker at a meeting held at the City Temple on November 28th to celebrate the completion of tho twenty-first year of work of tho Mansfield House University Settlement in Canning Town East. Owing to a disturbance created by militant suffragettes he left without delivering his speech. The vast building was crowded in every! part. In view of the fact that there were no ticket restrictions a disturbance by “militants” was thought not unlikely, and emergency constables were on duty inside and outside the building. ' The chairman, the Rev. W. B. Selbie, Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, who presided, immediately introduced Mr Asquith, who received a rousing cheer on entering the rostrum accompanied by Mr J. Ramsay MacDonald. The Prime Minister, who was received with great cordiality on rising, had only said, “Mr Chairman,” when a man in the gallery shouted out, “Mr Asquith, will you allow the House of Commons to control foreign affairs?” Aimid a general howl of indignation the interrupter, after a struggle, was removed. Quiet was, however, restored for a moment only. Mr Asquith again said, “Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen.” He got no further. Two women rose in the centre of the churcli and shouted, “Votes for women.” The stewards at once surrounded the two offenders, one of whom then became quiet. The other was caught by the arm and courteously escorted from the building. The Premier grimly watched the turmoil. “I came here to-night ” he resumed. “Mr Asquith,” shouted another woman who rose in the side gallery. The gathering! hissed and hooted and cried, “Throw her out!”'“Gag her!” and the interrupter was hustled out. “I was saying I have come here,” repeated Mr Asquith, “to fulfil a rather improvident promise which I made some time ago to my friend Mr Percy Aden that if Parliamentary and other exigencies allowed I would come and say a few words of congratulation on tho completion ” Again a woman interrupted, and the students who were acting as stewards attempted to turn her out. It was seen, however, that she had chained herself to a pillar in the front area of the church. She began to shout. Hands were placed over iher mouth, then a handkerchief, till at last some of tho students rolled a handkerchief mi the form of a ball, placed this over her mouth, and tied another handkerchief round her bead to . keep the gag in position. The woman did not passively submit to this. At one time she seemed on the verge of fainting, and leaned gasping in a man’s arms. A woman out of the immediate reach of the stewards added to tho disorder by shouting, “We don’t want manhood suffrage,” while another blew a police whistle till it was taken from her by a steward.

“If I can’t have silence I shall go,” said Mr Asquith in a lull in the disorder. He stood at the pulpit surveying the scene, pursing his lips characteristically, and balancing his pince-nez jerkily. Comparative order having been restored, Mr Asquith resumed: “I have come hero to congratulate you on the completion by Mansfield House of 21 years of life and work. And as lam only able 5 to be here for a few minutes ” A woman at the top of a pew of ftwelve persons broke in with, a shrill “Mr Asquith.” Her position was somewhat inaccessible, and this local disturbance lasted a couple of minutes before she was put out. At first the stewards dealt with the interrupters with a certain courtesy, but as the disorder increased some of the women were rushed out with considerable force. “It rests,” the Premier proceeded, “with 'the audience to say whether those minutes shall be occupied by the ladies and gentlemen of the audience or myself. lam old enough to recollect ” Here two women rose and yelled and the meeting was in an uproar. For a few moments Mr Asquith surveyed the scene, and then, calmly folding his notes, the Premier, who had been standing for twelve minutes, turned to the chairman and announced his intention of going. .Despite persuasive arguments and cries of encouragement he left the platform and the building. Mr Asquith’s retirement was witnessed with hilarious delight by the suffragettes, and some other members of the audience showed their anger by Hinging books and other missiles at them.

LABOUR LEADER’S INDIGNATION Mr Ramsay MacDonald rose and said : “One would prefer to have been oblivious to and to forget the degrading and disgusting scene on which wo have just been looking. Those of us who have any regard for womanhood, those of us who have any ideals regarding woman’s intelligence and woman’s conduct, must simply how their heads with shame. The consequence of these demonstrations must bo felt not in such meetings as these but in the House of Commons itself. I, for my part, if 1 felt that the cause had come to this, would go into the lobby every time against it.” Mr MacDonald then turned to the work of Mansfield House, and referred to the part played by institutions like that in fitting future legislators for their duties. Society was a very queer tiling. If they let it alone it would never think about them at all. If they went on living in slums, society would never clear the slums out. Society would do anything for a quiet life and a merry one. But a quiet life was not now possible, and so organisations like Mansfield House, with its clubs, its investigations, and its manifold voices, were tho host safety valves that society had got. Society was a moral organisation when awake. It only became the implement of the devil when it went to sleep. The chairman announced that Sir John Simon (the Solicitor-General), who was announced to he present, was detained in the House of Commons. Thereupon there was a general exodus, presumably of suffragettes. They rose in all parts of the building to make their way out. As they did so the audience hissed them. Towards the close of the meeting Mr Halley Stewart suggested that the audience should authorise Mr Percy Alden, M.P., “to express to Mr Asquith on our behalf our profound disappointment at tho /conduct which prevented him from addressing this meeting and to assure him of our hearty sympathy and our warmest thanks.” The proposal was carried unanimously.