MILITANT SUFFRAGETTES

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 45, 15 June 1914, Page 5

MILITANT SUFFRAGETTES

GENERAL CONFUSION. ‘ jBT ELECTRIC TbLSQRAPH—COPYRIGHT [United Peebs Association.} London, June 13. The National Union of Women’s Suffragette Societies and the Unionist Women’s Franchise Association have issued a joint manifesto protesting against lawless violence, arson, destruction and vandalism by a -’Small section of women. Westminster Abbey has beep , reopened.

The bomb found in the Abbey was more dangerous than any previously used. It was suspended by a loop of string to the back of the Coronation chair. It contained a chlorate explosive and large iron nuts'. These and fragments of- the casing were found fifty feet away, where they damaged the adjoining roof. Cyclists air two o’clock in the morning found the door of Chipstead Church burning fiercely, and inflammables piled at two other doors. The fire was small damage having been done. Orgahised efforts to deliver speeches and scatter literature at East End theatres led to prompt ejections of suffragettes. One at the' New Theatre was roughly handled, the attendants rescuing three. A man at His Majesty’s Theatre gagged-them with handkerchiefs and carried them into the streets. Ladies in the audiences were noticeably hostile to the suffragette*?action. Tumultuous scenes occurred at Southsea. Three thousand assembled on the pier to hear addresses from Nina Boyle and other advanced militants. Their flag was torn to shreds. Bluejackets drew the trolley, whereon the speakers stoood, across the cbmmon, where it was overturned. Eventually the police rescued the suffragettes. The public is now excluded from the upper part of St. Paul’s. Mrs Fawcett, addressing the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, strongly condemned the militants’ destruction of historic monuments. The Union has issued a manifesto describing the militant methods for which it stands.

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