he
was prepared to bow to and acquiesce in the considered judgment of the
House of Commons, and he stated that this course was quite in
accordance with the best traditions of English public life. The
National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, of which I was the
mouthpiece, then put the following questions:

(1) Is it the intention of the Government that the Reform Bill shall
go through all its stages in 1912?

(2) Will the Bill be drafted in such a way as to admit of amendments
introducing women on other terms than men?

(3) Will the Government undertake not to oppose such amendments?

(4) Will the Government regard any amendment enfranchising women,
which is carried, as an integral part of the Bill be defended by the
Government in all its later stages?

To all these questions, as they were put severally, Mr. Asquith
replied "Yes, certainly."

Mr. Lloyd George, who was present, was pressed by the deputation to
speak but did so only very briefly. He was known as an opponent of the
Conciliation Bill but had voted for it in 1911 because it was so
drafted as to admit of free amendment. He made no secret of his
conviction that the wider enfranchisement afforded by amendment of the
Government measure would, to use his own expression, "torpedo" the
Conciliation Bill. Almost immediately after the deputation thus
described he sent the following message to the N.U.W.S.S.: "The Prime
Minister's pronouncement as to the attitude to be adopted by the
Government towards the question seems to make the carrying of a
Women's Suffrage Amendment to next year's Franchise Bill a certainty.
I am willing to do all in my power to help those who are labouring to
reach a successful issue in the coming session. Next year provides the
supreme opportunity and nothing but unwise handling of that chance can
compass failure."

There was plenty of unwise handling, but not, as I am proud to think,
from the constitutional suffragists. The first was the wild outburst
of "militancy" already referred to. Mr. Lloyd George was pursued by
persistent interruption and annoyance deliberately organised by the
Women's Social and Political Union. A meeting he addressed at Bath,
mainly devoted to advocacy of Women's Suffrage, on Nov. 24, 1911, was
all but turned into a bear garden by these deliberately planned and
very noisy interruptions. Not to be outdone in "unwise handling" Mr.
Asquith next had his innings. He received an anti-suffrage deputation
on