Some historical and global examples of tax resistance → women’s suffrage movements → British women’s suffrage movement → L.E. Turquand

The Vote

From the issue of The Vote:

Women’s Tax Resistance League.

Secretary, Mrs. [Margaret] Kineton Parkes, 98, St. Martin’s-lane, W.C. A silver cake basket belonging to Miss [L.E.] Turquand, Press Secretary to the Free Church League for Woman Suffrage, was sold at Sydenham. After a procession with banners, a successful protest meeting was held. Mrs. Harvey’s house at Bromley is still barricaded; nothing has happened.

From the issue of The Vote:

Taxation Without Representation.

Miss K. Raleigh.

For non-payment of Inhabited House Duty — the amount of which was seven shillings — Miss Kate Raleigh’s goods were distrained on last week at Uxbridge. Miss Raleigh naturally made use of the occasion for propaganda purposes, conversing with the tax collector for some time on the subject of Woman Suffrage, and presenting him with Suffrage literature, which he accepted. Before taking his leave he expressed himself as, on the whole, in favour of women’s claims to enfranchisement.

Miss Evelyn Sharp.

Following on the bankruptcy proceedings against Dr. Winifred S. Patch, the next victim is Miss Evelyn Sharp, the brilliant writer and speaker, whose long service to the Woman Suffrage cause is widely known and honoured. At the first meeting of “creditors” — again the only creditor is the Government, but dignified by a plural — Miss Sharp entirely disputed the claim of £56 19s. 10d. in respect of unpaid income-tax, in view of her political status as an unenfranchised woman, and the unconstitutional procedure of levying taxes without representation. For three weeks a bailiff has been in possession of Miss Sharpe’s bed-sitting room; early this week, however, all her furniture, books, and other possessions, except her bed and bath, were removed, including even her typewriter, which is certainly a tool of her craft. An added indignity and, we say, illegality, is that her letters have not only been opened but detained for a week. It is expected that the public examination will take place early in .

The Women’s Freedom League expresses its warm appreciation of the action of these Suffragists in defending the principle of “No Taxation Without Representation.”