At It Again!
Nothing daunted, Mrs. Kate Harvey, of Bromley, has plunged into the fray
again. In default of payment, the tax-collectors have once more broken the
barricades at Brackenhill, and ear-marked goods for a forced sale. An
ingenious plan of protection had been devised and carried out, and the King’s
officers wrestled with the fortifications for two hours before an entry was
effected by means of a battering-ram! The sale will take place on
, and all friends and members who
will give their support at the protest should hasten to send their names in
to Headquarters. It is probable that the sale will be on the premises, as for
some reason or other the authorities appear nervous about the prospect of a
disturbance if the affair is held in a more public spot. As the protests of
Mrs. Harvey are now recognised and appreciated at their true value by the
people of Bromley, we have no difficulty in interpreting the nervousness as a
fear that too great a demonstration of sympathy for the “offender” might make
the task of the officials even more thankless than usual.
Miss Lena Ashwell on Tax Resistance.
Miss Lena Ashwell addressed a crowded audience at the Suffrage Club,
St. James’s,
, under the auspices of the
Women’s Tax Resistance League. Mrs. [Caroline] Louis Fagan presided. Miss
Ashwell said that taxation was the thing on which men succeeded in getting the
vote, yet women had been constantly told that they had nothing to do with
taxation. With her peculiar charm she gave account of her interview with Mr.
Lloyd George when, with other members of the League, she stated her position
under the Income Tax Act. “I had heard that this most charming and unreliable
of men had the power to convince you of his own point of view, whatever your
previous attitude. I therefore took the precaution to write down all I meant
to say.” But all that the Chancellor of the Exchequer could say when pressed
for amendments of the law, was that ‘the Treasury would lose by it!’ ” Miss
Ashwell showed how hardly the Insurance Act dealt with the domestic servants,
but it revealed a mass of misery among women hitherto unsuspected. The Press
accepted with callousness such facts as that a woman and child managed to
live on 4s. a week.
“Women,” she added, “must organise as never before!”
Women’s Tax Resistance League.
On a drawing-room meeting was
given at Harley-place by Dr.
Handley Read and Dr. Constance
Long, when Mr. Laurence Housman spoke on the necessity for Tax Resistance on
the part of voteless women in order to make the Government realise the
far-reaching spirit of revolt among all classes of women. Speeches were also
made by Dr. Constance Long,
Mrs. [Margaret] Kineton Parks, and Mr. Vernon Compton. On
, Mrs. Skipwith, who
lent her drawing-room in Montagu-square and presided over the meeting, said
she had twice resisted her taxes and felt that the protests had been very
valuable to the Cause. Miss Abadam was the speaker, and made a most earnest
appeal to women to realise their enormous responsibility if they continued to
subscribe money to the Government under existing conditions.
The December monthly meeting will be held on
at the offices of the League,
10, Talbot House, 98, St.
Martin’s-lane. Miss Winifred Holiday will preside, and members who have
successfully evaded payment of taxation will give their experiences. Tea will
be served at , and the
meeting will begin at . Members
are invited to bring friends.
