THE SUFFRAGETTES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10062, 9 August 1910, Page 3

THE SUFFRAGETTES.

TWO MILE 3 OF WOMEN IN PROCESSION. For two hours on .Saturday afternoon, June 18ih, 10.000 women diverted the traffic ot a portion of London by a procession two miles long, headed by "G ineral" Mra Drummond ridine astride in a green coat. They were taking part in the most imposing Suffragist demonstration Eng-

land has yet known—a resolute march on a warm summer afternoon from Blaekfriars Bridge to the Albert Hall, Knightsbridj;e. Hundreds of thousands of citizens l n;j the route, and though the presence of the vast majority had been promoted merely by cariosity, there were but few who were not stirred to admiration of the quiet grit each one of the women evinced.

it was a new spirit in woman J 3 franchise demonstrations, this air of quiet determination; and it was effective. The windows of the clubs were thronged by members who cried words ot cheer to each section as it passed. The man in the street was confounded.

I "They don't seem like Suffragettes 1 at a'l," was the remark on all sides.

TKIUMPH OF OKGANISATION.

The second impression formed by the spectator wag one of grateful colour. Here indeed was one of women's moat subtle arts, and the organisers, of the procession did not fail to give it full play. Soft purple was the prevailing tone. In the vanguard of the Women's Freedom League marched the "martyrs" who had suffered imprisonment for the "furtherance of the cause. Moat of them were gowned in white, touched here and there with purple, and all proudly flaunted the banners recording the names of the prisons where each had been incarcerated. But a genius had managed this section of the processing Immediately in the wake of the "martrya" walked three delightiully dainty girls clothed in the subtlest shads of purple and carrying delicate posies of blue irises. Ahead were the women who had suffered. Were these,

too, to suffer? Hundreds of nurses took part. One group marched behind a banner which bore the lhscription: "Doubt, not of the day." Immediately under the heliotrope silk walked a grey-haired nurse c!ad in vivid scarlet. Clustered about her were girls in every unitorm anout the sickbeds of England. A poem was presented in the grouping. The Fabian Society was also strongly represented. Here the retailing purple was solashed by the red and blue gowns of several doctors of science and medicine, women whose degrees has been conferred upon them in Brussels, Dublin, Edinburgh, and London,

. A curiously effective touch of organisation had placed immediately ahead of a bevy of beautiful actresses a contingent of "sweated woman workers" from' the East End. They carried their banner very proudly, these bas-ket-workers, boxmakers, and workers in many other occupations. The "stage" was, of course, everything that was expected of it, spick and span, dainty and radiant. But it is doubtful who scored the greater triumph on the route, the red-faced labour worn workers of the East End or the beauties who walked behind. At all events they were enthusiastic. Black and white were the colours of the hundred woman writers who had chosen to do things for a few hours instead of writing of them. Each of them carried a neatly shaped pendant and ail were obviously enjoying themselves. CANADIAN'S GOLDEN SYMBOLS. The women of the Overseas Dominions formed a section ot their own. Scores of Canadians, resident or holi-day-making in London, marshalled beneath Waterloo Bridge for the march to Knightsbridge, each of them carrying a handful of lon* Wheat stalks. Theirs was a harvest scene in London. Ever as they went they waved their golden symbols high in the air, fluttering a gratified

response to the cheers of the people. Fifty Australian women marched behind a purplt! banner, tin which a map of their country had b:-en worked in white satin. South Africans and New Zealanders, including Lady Stout, the wife of the Lord Chief Justice of New Zealand, also joined in the marcti. Behind the Canadians was a group of gaily dressed American women waving the Stars and Stripes. In the evening two mass meetings were htld, ore in the Albert Hall and the other m the Kensington Town Hall. At the former speeches were delivered by Mrs Pankhurst, Mrs Pethick Lawrence, Miss Christabel pankhurst, and the Earl of Lytton, who stood for five blushing minutes while 10,000 women rose to their feet singing "For he's a jolly good fellow." In twenty-five minutes £4,500 was subscribed to the fighting fund of the Women's) Social and Political Union, Mrs Bertha Ayrton and Mr Pethick Lawrence heading the list with gifts of £IOOO apiece.