ASSAULT ON PARLIAMENT HOUSE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9131, 2 July 1908, Page 5

ASSAULT ON PARLIAMENT HOUSE.

♦ —— SUFFRAGETTES ON THE WAR PATH. DETERMINED DEMONSTRATORS. EXTRAORDINARY SCENES. TWENTY-EIGHT SUFFRAGETTES ARRESTED.

Received July 1, 10.3 p.m.

LONDON, July 1

The advocates of women's suffrage are continuing their agitation in a very determined manner. Yesterday there were some extraordinary scenes in connection with demonstrations, and conflicts with the police were of frequent occurrence. The suffragettes efforts to gain the inside of the House of Commons again failed yesterday. The Women's Social and Political Union Convention met yesterday at Cnxton Hall, and after fully discussin? the matter, deputed Mrs Pankhu"s!;, a prominent suffragette leader, an 1 twelve others to carry a resolution demanding the franchise to the House of Commons. ( . The police escorted them to the entrance of the House of Commons, where the Insoector stated that the Sergaant-at-Arms forbade the deputation to eater the building, as Mr H. H. nsquith, the Preimer, had declined to receive them, suggesting instead that they present a written statement. The deputation then returned to Caxton Hall and reported the result of their mission. The Convention forthwith decided to invade the House of Commons: A huge uproarious crowd gathered in Parliament Square for two hours and watched the progress of the assault upon the House of Commons. The demon?tratofs appeared in detached parties, and the police from the Parliament buildings excluded, them from the Square. £'wenty-eight were arrested after a series of scuffles.

Another suffragette in a boat ad--4 dressed the occupants of Parliament Hou'-e Terrace. Liitar two woman, armed with ba?s of stones, wee arrested in the act'of smashing the windows of MnAsquith's house in 'Downing Street.

The proceedings nt the Caxton Hall Convention were of an excited character.

Replying to Lady Groves' expo3tulatory remarks that it was notoriously illegal to walk in a procession to tn« H niße of Commons, Miss Pankhurst, who has figured prominently in most of the suffragette demonstrations, exclaimed: "Yes, John Burns has discovered that one sometimes must be a law-breaker before being a lawmaker. We have only one black sheep in the flock. We women are goirg to win. Let it be before some tragedy, before some injury 10 one of thess women has the page."