>>Narrator:Stories from Parliament.Votes For Women Part 2
>> Constance: As Lady Constance Lytton, with influential friends, I’d been given special
treatment in prison. Would I be treated differently if I changed my appearance and my name?
I decided I would join the suffragettes’ next march of protest disguised as an ordinary
working woman – a woman by the name of “Jane Warton”.
I went to buy a pair of glasses and the plainest, least fashionable dress and coat and hat,
and had my hair cut short. I could tell my ugly disguise was a success.
>> Gentleman: You know ladies - I think she’s actually bought that hat!
[Men and women’s laughter.]
>> Constance: I felt embarrassed as well as pleased by my disguise. But this was nothing
compared to what my fellow suffragettes were going through in prison.
Many were now on hunger strike – refusing to take food – and being forced to eat in
the cruellest way. So I travelled by train up to Liverpool to join the protest outside
the prison, where we knew this cruel treatment was in force.
In front of the prison governor’s house Miss Emily Davison spoke to the assembled
crowd:
>> Emily Davison: If there are no men in Liverpool who’ll stand up for these prisoners here,
let the women do their part! Stay and blockade the governor’s house ‘til the prisoners
are released!
>> Constance: Two policemen seemed to have their eyes fixed on me. I was determined to
get arrested and imprisoned, so I began to throw the stones I was holding – though
I didn’t throw them at the governor’s windows.
All I did was drop them over the hedge into his garden! But that was enough!
>> Policeman: Right! That’s it!
>> Constance: The two policemen grabbed me by the arms and marched me off to the station.
Miss Davison struck one of them on the back:
>> Emily Davison: Let her go! She’s done nothing! Let her go, I say!
>> Constance: So she was arrested, too.
[Sounds of a cell door being slammed and locked.]
>> Constance: I was sentenced to fourteen days’ hard labour. And thanks to my disguise,
Jane Warton – as I now was – received none of the special treatment that had been
offered to “Lady Lytton”. Now I learned exactly what my fellow suffragettes
were subjected to.
[Cell door opens.]
>> Constance: Each day a wardress brought me all my meals but as each meal was brought
to my cell... I don’t want any, thank you.
>> Wardress: (unsympathetic) Very well.
[Cell door shuts.]
>> Constance: Then, on the fourth day, a doctor entered my cell, with five wardresses.
>> Medical Officer: So, then...
>> Wardress: This one’s Jane Warton.
>> Medical Officer: Jane Warton – and this is your fourth day without food. You must
be fed at once. But I would urge you to take food willingly – you’ll find it much more
pleasant.
>> Constance: When our government gives votes to women, I shall eat.
>> Medical Officer: [impatient and annoyed] This is absurd behaviour! All started by that
Dunlop woman!
>> Constance: Miss Wallace Dunlop began the hunger strikes and all imprisoned suffragettes
now follow her example!
>> Medical Officer: Very well. Let’s lie her down on her bed.
[Sounds of forcing her down onto her bed, and her resisting.]
>> Medical Officer: Why must you women resist, this is no way to help your cause.
>> Constance: Then he thrust a tube down my throat I choked as it reached inside. Down
and down it went. Then the sloppy liquid food was poured in
It made me sick in seconds. It seemed an eternity before they took the tube out.
I knew that “Lady Constance Lytton” would not have been treated like this. But ordinary
“Jane Warton” was a despised, helpless creature, and when she was out of prison,
no one would believe a word she said! There were so many Jane Wartons in our land;
we had to help them, by winning votes for women.
[Sounds of struggle in the next cell]
Before long, through the wall, I heard the sounds of forced feeding in the next cell
to mine. It was almost more than I could bear. But at last the ghastly process was over and
all was quiet.
>> Constance: Then I tapped on the wall...
And called out... No surrender! Votes for Women! And there came an answer from beyond
the wall.
>> Emily Davison: (muffled) No surrender! Votes for women!
>> Constance: I think it was Miss Davison – I couldn’t be sure. But now as I think
back I am quite sure of her most famous deed...
[Sounds of a horse race, and an excited crowd.]
>> Constance: On June 4th, 1913, Emily Davison was at the front of the crowd at the Epsom
Derby. With the horse race in full flow, she stepped under the barrier and on to the track.
Two horses thundered past her, but as another – the King’s horse – galloped round
the bend, she lunged towards it and was bowled over and trampled under its hooves.
[Sounds of thundering hooves, whinnying horses, and cries of shock.]
Some said it was suicide, to bring attention to our cause. But Emily
had bought a return ticket to the race: I believe that she had no intention of dying
as she did. I believe that she was trying to hang a Suffragette flag on the passing
horse, so that when it crossed the finishing line the King’s own horse would be flying
the slogan: “Votes for Women”. Perhaps it was a turning point – I don’t
know. It had taken years, but in 1918, women were given the vote – [dissatisfied] if
they were over 30. Perhaps in time women will have the vote on
the same terms as men. Perhaps one day they will even be elected themselves. I hope for
this at least: that anyone in future times who has the right to vote will use it and
will remember the struggles of the suffragettes. Deeds, not words! Deeds, not words!
[Music]