| Main Performers | Emmeline Pankhurst,
Vida Goldstein, (President of the Women's Political Association of Victoria),
Mrs Pethick-Lawrence,
Christabel Pankhurst - speakers |
| Set List | 'March of the Women', Ethel Smyth (World Premiere) |
| Performance Notes | Ethel Smyth's 'March of the Women', the Suffragette anthem was launched at the event. Cicely Hamilton, another suffragette wrote the lyrics and a choir of suffragettes sang, having been rehearsed for weeks by Smyth. Smyth was ceremonially presented with a baton by Emmeline Pankhurst, and proceeded to conduct the whole gathering in singing it. Smyth was active in promoting the performance of the song throughout the WSPU's membership.
"In those early days of my association with the WSPU occurred an event which, in her pride, the writer must recount ere the pace becomes such that a personal reference would be unthinkable, namely the formal introduction to the Suffragettes of 'The March of the Women,' to which Cicely Hamilton fitted the words after the tune had been written - not an easy undertaking. A Suffragette choir had been sternly drilled, and I remember Edith Craig plaintively commenting on the difficulty of hitting a certain E flat. But ut was maintained that the interval is a peculiarly English one (which is true) and must be coped with. We had the organ, and I think a cornet to blast forth the tune (a system much to be recommended on such occasions), and it was wonderful processing up the centre aisle of the Albert Hall in Mus.Doc. robes at Mrs Pankhurst's side, and being presented with a beautiful baton, encircled by a golden collar with the date, 23rd March 1911."
('Female Pipings in Eden', Dame Ethel Smyth, 1933)
Vida Goldstein spoke of the humiliation with which she beheld the grille of the Ladies Gallery at the Houses of Parliament.
'One of the most successful meetings of the Women's Social and Political Union was held on Thursday in last week at the Royal Albert Hall, when the following resolution was carried, with only one dissentient voice:
This meeting condemns the dishonourable and unprincipled tactics employed by successive Governments in order to defraud women of their right to the Parliamentary Vote. The meeting demands the immediate cessation of these tactics and calls for the enactment of the Conciliation Bill in 1911. And further, the meeting calls upon women to unite in determined militant protest against any attempt on the part of the Prime Minster to prevent this measure of justice being carried into law during the present Session of Parliament.' (Votes for Women, 31 March 1911)
'We say to you non-militant women, do not sin against the light. Do not let cowardice blind your vision. Be honest with yourselves. Think this thing out clearly without any heat or emotion. Ask yourselves what is the good of a constitutional policy to those who have no constitutional weapon. We say for constitutional Suffragists, you are no longer children, and you must not play the part of children. You are women with the souls and minds of women, and you must acquit yourselves like women. I will put two questions to you: Do you deny that these militant methods are necessary. History teaches you that they are; present day experience teaches you that they are. And again I ask you, "Are Militant methods right?' Yes they are right. They are the only methods that are right. If we rely on constitutional methods when our intelligence tells us that these methods are in vain, then we are cowards. Morally and physically we are cowards. And that is not a thing that any woman likes to be.' (Christabel Pankhurst speaking at the Albert Hall meeting, taken from Votes for Women, 31 March 1911) |