Mrs. [Kate] Harvey’s Tax Resistance.
Mrs. Harvey sends through The Vote the following
message of thanks to all who were present at her sale. Our readers will be
interested in the sequel:—
To the Editor of The Vote.
Dear Madam, — As it was impossible for me personally to speak to
everyone who came to my sale on , will you allow me to express my heartfelt thanks to them
through the medium of your paper?
I have, after due consideration, sent the following letter to the Surveyor
of Taxes. This time I have allowed the authorities to score “partial
success” their next attempt will be “dead failure.” — Yours faithfully.
K. Harvey.
To the Surveyor of Taxes, Bromley.
Sir, — With reference to the sale of my goods here on
, in
consequence of distraint for non-payment of Inhabited House Duty: there is
a question as to the legality of the sale, but I have to-day told the
tax-collector that the buyer shall be allowed to remove his purchase. I
wish you clearly to understand that, although I can give no definite reason
at the moment, I still feel grave doubts concerning the sale and shall make
it my business to obtain clear knowledge upon this point and also to learn
why my house was broken into and my property destroyed with such
unnecessary violence.
I believe the tax-collector has to bear all losses, and I think
he has suffered enough for this time. — I am, yours truly,
K. Harvey.
A Message with a Meaning.
Mrs. Harvey writes further on :—
“I have just received the first demand note for this year’s taxes. I have
torn it up, put it in the envelope in which it came, and re-posted it to the
Tax Collector. I suppose it is now reposing in his rubbish basket.”
Protest by London Graduates.
We publish with pleasure the following letter of protest against Mrs.
Harvey’s treatment in prison, and warmly thank the seventy signatories
for the practical step they have taken:—
4, Brandon House, Mortimer-street,
W.
.
To the Editor of The Vote.
Madam, — I beg to forward for publication the following extracts from a
letter addressed to the Home Secretary, relating to the imprisonment in
Holloway, in , of Mrs.
Katherine Harvey, the well-known suffragists of Brackenhill, Bromley, Kent,
who was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment by the Bromley magistrates for
resistance of the license and insurance of her manservant, David Asquith.
The cell in which Mrs. Harvey was confined was maintained in so damp a
condition that her health was seriously affected.
The letter is signed by more than seventy graduates of the University of
London, and is accompanied by an affidavit made by Mrs. Harvey and a
certificate from her medical man.
Among the signatories are the following:—
Dr.
L. Garrett Anderson, Professor W.M. Bayliss,
F.R.S.,
Dr.
F.F. Blackman, F.R.S., Sir Edward Busk,
Lady Busk,
Dr.
R.W. Chambers,
Dr.
Alice M. Corthorn, Mr. Gerald Gould, Professor W.D. Halliburton,
F.R.S.,
Mr. P.J. Hartog, Sir Victor Horsley,
F.R.S.,
Mrs. Scharlieb,
M.D.,
Rev.
J.H. Shakespeare
Dr.
Barbara Tchaykovsky,
Dr.
Florence Willey. — I am, yours faithfully,
Frances Wood.
Extracts from the Letter to the Right
Hon. Reginald McKenna,
M.P.
We submit to you that to maintain a cell in so permanently wet a condition
that the prisoner contracts rheumatism and gastric catarrh is to inflict
additional suffering not contemplated by law. The case is one for prompt
and impartial inquiry, and we trust that you will order such inquiry to be
made and the results of that inquiry to be made public.
Our plea is made not only on behalf of Mrs. Harvey but of all prisoners
alike, in the name of common humanity and justice.
Women’s Tax Resistance League.
Drawing-room meetings were held on , the hostesses being Mrs. Webb, of West-hill, Sydenham, and Miss
K. Balfour, Victoria-road, Kensington, and Mrs. [Margaret] Kineton Parkes
spoke on both occasions. On Mrs.
Kineton Parkes spoke at Southampton, under the auspices of the National Union
of Women Suffrage Societies. On
also the monthly meeting was held at the League’s Offices. Miss Winifred
Holiday presided, and members gave their experiences of tax evasion.
