SUFFRAGETTES

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 28 February 1913, Page 5

SUFFRAGETTES

MRS PANKHURST OX TRIAL

THitKATKX-.S A HUNGER STRIKE

| (Received Last Night, 10.25 o'clock.) LONDON, February 27. Mrs Pankhurst will be tried at the May assizes. Dismayed at finding that she would not bo tried at- the current sittings, Mite !Pank:hu.r.st agitatedly declare::! that she would not have a fair trial, if kept in custody, her punishment would begin forthwith, as she was a "hunger .striker." If alive \in the summer, it would be a dying Wvontan placed on trial. Mrs Pankhurst has issued a statement, since bail has been refused. She repudiates the right of the authorities to try her. Englishmen, she says, have a right to he tried by their own peers. That right ,vas denied to women. Therefore, she would not consent to legal farce, or comply with prison discipline.

FURTHER OUTRAGES,

DEMONSTRATION BROKEN UP

(Received Last Night, 10.2-j o'clock.) LONDON, February 27. A woman was arrested on the All England tennis ground at Wimbiedon, carrying a bag of fire-lighters, .shavings, and oil.

The suffragettes attempted to start a fire at the Rockhampton sports pavilion. The women escaped, but a man was arrested with a- quantity of combustibles, and a card inscribed, "This is done because Mrs Pankhurst was refused bail." ft has been (found that much of the correspondence destroyed by phosnihorus in the pillar boxes at Nottingham was suffragette literature. A stall at Wallsall was wrecked. A large demonstration at the Corr;natiion Hall at Worthing was broken up. Exciting scuffles took place. The crowd attempted to duck the suffragettes in a horse trough. ' SUFFRAGETTES LF.TTER TO MAGISTRATES. MRS PAiXK.HURST SENT FOR TRIAL. (Received February 27. 9 a.m.) LONDON, February 20.

During the hearing of the case at the Epsom Police Court against Mrs Pankhnrst charged, under the Malisons Damage to Property Act. with incitement to crime, the Magistrates Mr Marshall Hall. K.C.. Mrs Pankhurst's counsel, an unopened letter addressed to the Bench. Mr Hall, on opening it, stated that it was from suffragettes at Er>som, and was scurrilous and unworthy of notice. Mr. A. H. Bodkin, for the prosecution, emphasised the seriousness of the charge of being an accessory before the fact to the commission of felony. The abominable outrage had avowedly been, intended to overawe t'he public and the Government in furtherance of a seditious and illegal scheme..

iVLi" Pinkhurst was committed tc the Guildford Assizes for trial, and sent to gaol, having declined, in the event of hail being granted, to refrain from continuing the agitation. TELEPHONE WIRES CUT. (Received February 27, 9.10 a.m.) LONDON. February 2b. Telephone wires at a. dozen call offices in Belfast have been cut. The Home Office will continue forcible feeding of prisoners, until life ie endangered, and they will then be released. *

It is hinted that a Bill ?s hiring prepared to enable suffragette prisoners to !be released on license : also providing for the recovery of fines.