alternatehistory.com

Interlude - letter to Times
Letter to the Editor, Times Newspaper, published March 13th 1913

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.​
Sir,-I am a West-end shopkeeper of 28 years standing. My windows were broken in the recent disorders, and as I am a woman I should, according to anti-suffragist logic, stand in particular need of protection by the laws I have no hand in framing. The Queen's Hall meeting yesterday was convened by a committee of West-end tradesmen whose business largely depends upon the support of women, either in trade or otherwise. No tradeswoman or woman shopkeeper was asked to come on that committee or to be among the speakers, nor-to my knowledge-was any woman in the trade consulted as to the procedure or resolutions. When I, as a West-end shopkeeper, asked to be allowed to move the following amendment to the first resolution-”That this meeting calls upon the Government to put a stop to the suffragette disorders by removing the cause of their grievance”-I was shouted down, and had it not been for the determined intervention of those beside me, I should have been roughly handled by several members of the new civilian force, who, paying no attention to the chairman's shouting “Let the lady speak!” forced their way through rows of occupied stalls with an evident intention of violent action. I am an old woman of frail appearance and yet the majority of men present shouted “Turn her out!” the instant I stood up, thus creating disorder and encouraging violence. No better demonstration is needed to show how little women count when men think they can safely ignore or ill treat them. So much for British fair play and much-vaunted chivalry.


Yours faithfully,
A E ATHERTON
Fine Arts Society, New Bond-street, March 12​
Top