THE MORNING POST JULY 13 1914 

MILITANT SUFFRAGISTS OUTRAGES

WINDOW BREAKING, ARSON AND WILFUL DESTRUCTION 

FIRE LOSSES UPWARDS OF £380,000 

In the House of Commons on April 7,1913 Mr. McKenna said that up to that time the number of persons imprisoned for offences in connection with militant suffragist operations since January 1 1910, had been as follows: In 1910, 116; in 1911, 188; in 1912, 240; and in 1913, 70. In the discussion in Parliament on the 11^th of last month the Home Secretary, in bringing his statistics up to date, stated: "Since the beginning of 1913 the number of individual offences has been greatly reduced. On the other had, we see that the seriousness of the offences is much greater."

OFFENCES FEWER BUT MORE SERIOUS The object of the present is to show from the files of the Morning Post and other sources of information how thoroughly accurate Mr. McKenna was in using the words quoted, and to give some details of recent crimes which will afford a better notion of the wilful destruction done than was furnished through the official statement of simply the total number of offences or of persons sent to prison. The highest aggregate of offences was reached in 1912, when a body of infuriated women, armed with hammers concealed in muffs or other parts of their dress, broke shop windows indiscriminately in the principal business streets in the West End of London. These acts were so numerous that any full record of them would fill columns of this journal. But the damage caused was according to the manager of one of the largest plate-glass insurance companies, not much in excess of £5,000. When, however, the breaking of windows gave place in the early part of last year to the burning of churches, private houses, football, cricket, golf and racecourse stands, the mutilation of works of art, and the placing of bombs in or near public buildings, the offences if less numerous became at once infinitely more serious and dangerous, the losses through incendiarism being already estimated at some £384,000.

ESTIMATED DAMAGES EACH MONTH

Militant suffragists entered vigorously upon the campaign or arson about February, 1913, and their depredations each month to the close of last year may be stated in round figures as follows:

These figures form a total of £271,000. The amount of the damage for each month this year is approximately:

These six months give an aggregate of £113,000, and that added to the amount of the losses last year makes a total of £384,000. The facts, then, in connection with window breaking and with arson may be set out thus:

Damage through Window Breaking .... £5,000

 Losses by Fire Raising …...............   £384,000

Wherever the loss is not stated in any of the following tables the extent of it has not been declared.

THE BURNING OF CHURCHES

HOLOCAUST OF PIOUS MEMORIALS

The churches specified in the subjoined table were either wholly or partially destroyed by incendiaries since April of last year. The computed damage is indicated in each instance where the sum can be stated. But a financial appraisement of loss is impossible in the case of ancient churches with their pious memorials of past generations. Churches of that antique character totally burned were those at Wargrave and Breadsall, the former dating from the Sixteenth Century and the latter from Norman times.

Churches were either fired or attempts made to burn them at the following places during the months stated: Abercarn and Isle of Thanet in April, Hastings, Eastbourne, and Penn in May, Great Harwood and Southend in June 1913. Attempts to burn churches were also made at Birmingham and Chipstead in June of the current year.

Bombs were exploded during this year in the Church of St. John the Evangelist, Westminster in March in St. Martin's in the Fields in April, in the Metropolitan Tabernacle in May, in Westminster Abbey on June 11, when the Coronation Chair and the Stone of Destiny were damaged, and in St. George's Hanover-square on the 14t^h of last month.

It may also be remembered that in May of last year an unexploded bomb, with with an electric battery attachment, was found in the chancel of St. Paul's Cathedral. In the same month bombs were discovered in St. John's Church Boscombe, in Holy Trinity Church, Hastings, and in the Duke of Buccleuch's private chapel at Llanrug. Last month a bomb was found in St. Mary's Parish Church Reading.

In March last the interior of Birmingham Cathedral was extensively daubed with white paint and the Burne-Jones window defaced, while a screen was mutilated in the same month at St. John's Church, Edinburgh.

PRIVATE HOUSES BURNED

ENTIRE OR PARTIAL DESTRUCTION

The undernoted private houses were either wholly or partially destroyed during the recent agitation:

Attempts were made to burn dwellings at the following places in the months named: Beckenham and Hampstead Garden Suburb in March, Potter's Bar and Hampstead in April, Hendon, Cooden Beach, and Cardiff in May, Birmingham in July, High Wycaombe, Bangor, Ardington, and Jesmond in August, East Ginchley, Tonbridge, Liverpool, and Loughton in September, Willesden and Bedford in October, Salisbury in November, and Shandon in December, 1913. There were also attempts at fire-raising at Hanworth in March, Lisburn and Belfast in April, Dundee [Dudhope Castle], Market Harborough, and Belfast in June of the present year.

FIRING OF CRICKET, FOOTBALL, AND RACECOURSE STANDS

EXHIBITION AND PIER PAVILIONS

The subjoined table gives an idea of the havoc wrought by incendiaries at cricket and football pavilions, racecourse stands, and other structures:

Attempts to burn stands or kindred buildings were made at the places named in the months mentioned; Kersall Edge, Horsforth, and Roehampton in February, Kelso, Cardiff, and Preston North End in April, Newcastle in July, Abergavenny, Isle of Man, Liverpool, and Hampstead in August, Ilford in September, Yarmouth and Dudley in October, Middlesborough, Catford, Blackburn, and Leeds in November, and Aintree in December, 1913. An attempt at burning was also made in May last at the New Castle Lawn Tennis Club, Nottingham Park.

SCHOOLS, TIMBER-YARDS AND RAILWAY STATIONS BURNED

NORTHFIELD LIBRARY AND FELIXSTOWE HOTEL

Subjoined is a list of places of education, timber-yards, railway stations, and other premises wholly or partially destroyed through wilful fire raising:

To burn schools attempts were made at Sutton-in-Ashfield, Carnarvon, and Edinburgh [Fettes College] in August, and Newport [Mon] in November, 1913.

Reports of the burning of hayricks were received from Richmond in May, Knowsley, Alderley Edge, Eckington, and Maltby in August, Croydon, Hampstead, Berkhamsted, and Oldbury in September, Edgeware in October, Burton-on-Trent in November, and Penarth in December, 1913. An attempt was made to burn wheatstacks at Nacton in April last.

Railway carriages were fired or blown up at Devonport, Oxted, and Teddingtron in April, and at Manchester in July, 1913; while accounts of attempts to burn stations came from Glasgow in May, Hazelwell in June, and Castle Bromwich in November of last year, Wigan in February, King's Norton in March, and Bangor in April of the current year also furnishing reports that incendiarism had been attempted there

BOMB EXPLOSIONS

MR. LLOYD GEORGE'S LODGE

Besides the bomb explosions which occurred in churches, and to which reference has already been made, bombs exploded at the places recorded below:

Unexploded bombs were discovered at the following places during the periods specified:

1913, April, London: Bank of England; Plymouth Hoe: Smeaton Tower; York; Herald            office; and Newcastle-on-Tyne; The Moot Hall

           May, London: South-Eastern District Post-office, Whitehall, Tottenham,            Bow-street --Police Court [packet addressed to Sir H. C. Bennett, the            magistrate, and marked "immediate", National Gallery, Strand Post-office,            and ----bourne-park Railway Station; Dublin; ---Theatre; Liverpool:            Lime-street Station waiting-room; Reading Postal Sorting Office a bomb            thrown from an express train; Oxted Tennis Club; Aylesbury: Railway Station            Brentwood: Outside the Lion and Lamb Hotel Stroud: Post Office Sorting            Department; Boxmoor: Near the Railway Subway; and Doncaster: Wheatley            Hall.

           June Eden Park, near Beckenham.

           July, Haslemere: Railway Station

           November, Liverpool: Sefton Palm House

1914 February, Birmingham: Moor Green Hall

           May, Wellingborough

           June, Nottingham: Near Royal Stand.

           July, Ayr: Burn's Cottage.

LETTER-BOX OUTRAGES

POSTMEN SEVERELY INJURED

Outrages at Post Office pillar-boxes, like those in connection with window-breaking, are too numerous to record in detail. But in regard to letters, just as with respect to window-breaking, it is possible from official statements to form an idea of the mischief done. Between June, 1913, and April of the present year explosives, sometimes in phials or tubes, were placed in pillar-boxes, with the result that in the Metropolitan Police District alone damage was done in upwards of 500 boxes to 4,014 letters, 114 of which were completely destroyed. In February of last year four postmen at Dundee were seriously burned in handling letters, one of which, containing dangerous chemicals, was addressed to Mr. Asquith, while at Fulham in the same month a postman was in the hands of his doctor for a fortnight through injuries from sulphuric acid.

DAMAGE TO WORKS OF ART

THE MUTILATION OF PICTURES

The undernoted table shows the works of art attacked, the estimated damage, where given, indicating as far as possible the cost of repairs but by no means the extent of diminution in the value of the pictures.

MISCELLANEOUS DESTRUCTION

GLASGOW WATER SUPPLY ENDANGERED

The following are among miscellaneous outrages committed since the beginning of 1913:

1913, February 1: Jewel case broken at the Tower

           February 8: New orchid House at Key Gardens attacked, damage £1,000

           February 9: Glass broken at the Museum, Edinburgh.

           March 8: Railing torn up at Nottingham: April 6: Beds of hyacinths cut up at Newcastle.       

           April 24: Tennis Court turf destroyed at King's Heath, Birmingham.

           May 11: Derby Statue disfigured at Preston.

1914. April 10: British Museum Porcelain Exhibits broken.

           May 23: Attempt to cut off the Glasgow Water Supply at an aqueduct between Milngavie and Loch Kartine.        

           May 25: British Museum mummy case smashed.

During the period covered by these acts there was an extensive cutting of telegraph, telephone, and railway signal wires, not only giving rise to great inconvenience and loss of trade, but adding materially to the risks of railway travelling. While, also, the outrages were in progress, there was a continuous interruption by brawling women of Church serves, theatre performances, and public meetings, the militants carrying their mad propaganda ultimately into the very home of the King and causing the Sovereign the utmost personal annoyance. Mr. McKenna once said that he was contemplating the prosecution of those who subscribed to the funds of the organisation which support the incendiaries. Why has this not been done?