o defeat
the Bill by 14 votes in 1912 but not a "considered judgment" to have
it carried by 167 in 1911! Sir Edward Grey felt strongly that the
House had placed itself in a very undesirable position, but the
Conciliation Bill was defeated and Sir Edward Grey, Mr. Lloyd George
and the leading suffragists in the Government continued to assure us
that the inclusion of Women's Suffrage through an amendment of the
Government Bill presented us with by far the best prospect of success
we had ever had. We worked as we had never worked before to secure the
success of this amendment or series of amendments. The session of 1912
had lasted from January to December without the committee stage of the
Government Bill being reached. This interminable session overflowed
into 1913 and the debate on the suffrage amendments of the Government
Bill was dated to begin on January 24th of that year. On January 23rd,
however, in reply to a question, the Speaker [Mr. Lowther] indicated
that he would probably be compelled to rule that if the Bill were
amended so as to include the enfranchisement of women, he might feel
obliged to rule that in this form it was not the same bill of which
the second reading had been carried in July, and it would, therefore,
have to be withdrawn and re-introduced! This ruling he confirmed on
the following Monday, January 27th. Therefore, every one of the fair
promises which Mr. Asquith had given us in November, 1911, proved to
be absolutely worthless.

I do not accuse Mr. Asquith of anything worse at this stage than
blundering. He was manifestly confounded and distressed by the
Speaker's ruling. Whether this were due to the naming of the Bill or
to Mr. Asquith's own speech on the second reading, "This is a bill to
enfranchise male persons only, etc.", we were not able to discover;
but the net result was that he found himself in a position in which it
was impossible for him to fulfil the promises he had given us. Under
these circumstances he did not take the only honorable course open to
him, i.e., of sending for us once more and asking us what we should
consider a reasonable equivalent for these unredeemed promises. He had
made these promises five years back and had repeated them from time to
time ever since. Now they were null and void. The only reasonable
equivalent would have been the introduction of a Government Reform
Bill which included the enfranchisement of women. Probably Mr. Asquith
knew that this was what