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The
meeting was drawn to a close, people started to leave.
In desperation Annie stood on her chair and cried, “Will
the Liberal Government give women the vote?”. The crowd
became angry and started pushing the two women. The police
arrived and led Christabel and Annie outside. Not giving
up, they held a protest outside the hall. This time they
were both arrested. In court the women refused to pay
their fines so the court sent them to prison, Christabel
for a week and Annie for three days.
The next morning most newspapers showed articles criticising
Annie and Christabel’s protests but the following week
these were followed by readers’ letters of support. O
the evening of October 20, the day Christabel left Strangeways
Prison, they all attended a meeting in Annie and Christabel’s
honour at the free trade hall. Kier Hardie, the Labour
Party Leader, gave an emotional speech of welcome, then
Annie and Christabel were presented with bouquets of flowers.
That was the first time that most people have ever heard
of the WSPU, which received a sudden rush of new members.
The Women’s Suffrage movement had gained more publicity
from this one event than they had in all the previous
years put together. The next campaign the WSPU launched
was a campaign of heckling. this meant members called
out and interrupted important politicians when they were
making speeches. One of their main targets was the parliamentary
candidate Winston Churchill. When he was making a speech
he would start the sentence but it would get interrupted
by a shout saying, “Votes For Women”, or “Give Votes to
Women”. Never before had women had this sort of tactics.
They made speeches, heckled politicians, and handed out
leaflets in the streets.
Christabel
Pankhurst had asked Annie Kenney to accompany her to the
Free Trade Hall. Annie Kenney explained the reasons for
their actions:
"Christabel
Pankhurst decided that she and I would go the Free Trade
Hall meeting, wait until question time (quite a legitimate
way of getting answers to problems perplexing voters),
then rise and put the question to Mr. Churchill: "If you
are elected, will you do your best to make Women's Suffrage
a Government measure?" Instinctively she knew that the
question would never be answered, for two reasons: had
he said Yes, the Cabinet would have practically been committed
to carry it out; had he said No, the Liberal women would
have pricked up their ears."
The
Manchester Evening Chronicle described what happened at
the Liberal Party meeting at the Free Trade Hall on 20th
October 1905:
"Miss
Christabel Pankhurst and Miss Annie Kenney were ejected
and later arrested for obstruction outside the building.
At the police court Miss Pankhurst was fined half a guinea
for assaulting the police officers by hitting them in
the mouth and spitting in their faces, and five shillings
for obstruction, or in default seven days. Miss Kenney
was fined five shillings, or three days. Rather than pay
the fine the ladies elected to undergo the imprisonment.
Miss Kenney was released on Monday morning. Miss Pankhurst
period expired this morning. By seven o'clock about two
hundred people had collected outside the gates of Strangeways
Gaol. When Miss Christabel appeared she was hailed with
a great cheer and instantly surrounded by a host of male
and female admirers. The first to greet and embrace the
prisoner was her mother, Miss Pankhurst. Miss Pankhurst
fell into the arms of her mother, and the two wept for
joy after having been parted for a whole week. As soon
as she could break away from her admirers Miss Pankhurst
called out, 'I will go in again for the same cause. Don't
forget the vote for women.'"
Read
the Manchester Guardian's detailed contemporary account
of the Suffragette's Free Trade Hall protest
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