The San Francisco call., 1910-11-23
WOMAN RIOTERS
BEAT PREMIER
and SECRETARY
Suffragettes Attack Asquith and
Birrell in London Streets
and $50 Are. Arrested
United Irish League Issues Nam
ifesto Blaming House of
Lords for Misery

LONDo1S, NOV, zz.-Ine poHt1cdI
campaign is being waged with a fierce
ness almost unknown in London. both
by politicians on the stump and the
suffragettes on the battlefield.
The battle of Downing Street. fought
this afternoon when several hundred
suffragettes attempted to storm the
premier's residence, assaulted Asquith
and Augustine Birrell, chief secretary
for Ireland, and broke many windows
in the government offices. surpassed
all previous spectacles of the sort.
About $50 women and several men
supporters are in the police station to-
night.
After an announcement by the
prime minister in the house of COM
mons that if he were still in power at
the next session of parliament the
government would give facilities for
the consideration of a suffrage bill,
large body of women, inf1amed rather
than placated by this promise, which
was characterized as nothing more
nor less than an insult to the cause"
left Caxton hall in search of the
premier.
WOMAN STRIKES PREMIER
They came upon him on the way to
formed a hostile Gordon around AS
quith who recently has resorted to all
kinds of subterfuges to keep himself
clear of the hands of the militant
women. One of them, Henrietta Will
liams, struck the government leader
and the premier would have Jared bad
ly had not large detachments of po-
lice come to his rescue.
The police had great difficulty in put
ting down the disorders and many of
the women had to be dragged from
the scene with clothes half torn from
their backs.
The rioting continued until evening
when squads of women attacked the
residences of Sir Edward Grey the
foreign secretary; of Winston Spencer
Churchill. the home secretary. and of
Lewis Harcourt, secretary of state for
the colonies Stones crashed through
the windows of the houses Sir Ed
ward Grey's bearing the brunt of the
attack.
One band spied Birrell strolling through
ST James Park to the Athenaeum club,
statesman, knocking his hat over his
eyes and kicking him about the legs.
When help came and the women were
driven off, Birrell limped to his motor
car on the arms of policemen.
Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of
to jail. Her sister, Mrs. Grant. denied
admittance. threw a missile through
the jail window She was also incar
cerated Miss Grace johnson was the
only American arrested. Miss Annie
Martin of Nevada, who was taken to
the police station Friday and was re-
leased, was not among those arrested
tonight
Churchill addressed a big meeting
this evening from which several men
adherents of the womens cause were
dragged out by the police
HOME RULE AN ISSUE
Churchill strongly defended the pro-
priety of irish Americans contributing
to the home rule cause The cry of
American dollars was likely to be used
a retort by the liberals, he said,
since Waldorf Astor had announced
that he was again the candidate of
the conservatives for Plymouth.
Battersea promises to be an inter
esting campaign ground, Sir John Har-
rington, who married the daughter of
Senator McMillen, having thrown down
the gauntlet as the conservative can
didate to John Burns, president of the
local government board.
The principal move of the day was
Premier Asquiths attempt to placate
the laborites by promising to introduce
legislation solving the difficulty which
has arisen on account of the Osborne
judgment, which was that labor unions
could not use their funds for the pay
ment of their representatives in par
lament.
The government proposed legislation
giving to trades unions the right to
provide funds for use in parliamentary
and municipal campaigns and for the
support of 1abor's representation pro-
vided there was no compulsion on mem
bers of the unions to contribute to
such funds.
The labor party met tonight and de-
clared the scheme suggested by the
premier wholly unsatisfactory.
The United Irish league has issued
a manifesto against the lords, calling
landlorJism and the house of lords
synonymous.
REDMOND ARRAIGNS LORDS
The manifesto which is signed by
John E. Redmond and r. p. O'Connor.
is a violent arraignment of the house
of lords as the only obstacle to home
rule 1t describes Lansdowne as an
"Anglo-Irish landlord, whose family
name is written deep in that coffin
ship, the Lansdowne hospital ward, and
in thousands of unmarked graves where
perished our people driven from the
Lansdowne property in the days of the
famine.
"At the door of the house of lords"
continued the manifesto, lies mainly
the guilt for all those laws for an in.
crease in landlord power, and for the
rejection of all measures for tenant re-
lief, whereof the great famine and the
great exodus were the plain and direct
consequences, and to every Irishman of
this generation appeal the voices of
1O00, 900 of our people who died of
hunger, and 100000 driven to evile to
dethrone the iniquitos body to which
they owed their boundless suffering"