Miss Cummins, who lives in the pretty little district of Froxfield, near
Petersfield, had goods sold in respect of non-payment of King’s Taxes
on afternoon. Miss [C. Nina] Boyle
and Miss [Jessie?] Murray attended the sale from Headquarters, and among
local supporters were Miss Cummins and her sister, Mrs. Baddeley
(W.S.P.U.),
Mr. Powell, Mr. Roper, and others. The assistant auctioneer, to whom it fell
to conduct the sale, was most unfriendly, and refused to allow any speaking
during the sale; but Miss Boyle was able to shout through a window at his
back, just over his shoulder, an announcement that the goods were seized
because Miss Cummins refused to submit to taxation without representation,
after which quite a number of people who were attending the sale came out to
listen to the speeches. Perched on the parapet of the churchyard wall, Miss
Murray opened the brief meeting, followed by Miss Boyle, both receiving
unexpected attention. Mr. Powell then spoke a few effective words to the men
present, calling upon them as voters to give effect to the women’s protest
by approaching their member and warning him that Women’s Suffrage was a
question to which he would be expected to give serious attention.
It would appear that, in spite of its remote position and quiet, uneventful
life, Suffrage has made great way in the Petersfield district. There are some
250 Suffragists, and several influential secessions from the Liberal
Association have taken place over the question.
Arrest and Release of Captain Gonne.
Captain Gonne,
R.A., was
arrested at his residence at Bognor, on
, and taken to Lewes gaol for
non-payment of Imperial taxes. Captain Gonne, whose wife is a member of the
Women’s Tax Resistance League, refuses to pay his wife’s income-tax, because
he supports her in the belief that there should be no taxation without
representation, and because he wishes to do his share towards altering the
iniquitous laws regulating the taxation of married women. He refuses to pay
his own taxes as a protest against the Government’s broken pledges to women
and their torture of women prisoners. The Women’s Tax Resistance League at
once organised a campaign of protest, in which the Women’s Freedom League and
other Suffrage societies would have joined, to hold meetings outside Lewes
Gaol. On night, however, he was set
free; and the Women’s Tax Resistance League is now raising serious points in
regard to the legality of the arrest and the treatment otherwise meted out to
him. It is well known that Captain Gonne’s health has suffered severely of
late, and his serious indisposition is attributable to the excessive violence
of Liberal stewards at meetings which Captain Gonne has attended on behalf of
the women’s cause.
The following correspondence has been sent us for publication by the
Women’s Tax Resistance League:—
To the Home Secretary, Home Office, Whitehall, S.W.
Sir, — Will you kindly inform my committee why, having decided to
release Captain Gonne,
R.A., from
Lewes Jail, you discharged him before it was possible for his family to
send for him, as they were prepared to do, rather than expose him in his
delicate state of health to a cross-country railway journey unaccompanied?
Did you not state in the House of Commons that prisoners were never released
without such necessary precautions having been taken? — Faithfully
yours,
(Signed) Margaret Parkes.
To the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Treasury-chambers, Whitehall, S.W.
Sir, — Are you aware of the fact that on
evening last Captain Gonne,
R.A., was
arrested at Bognor for non-payment of Imperial taxes and conveyed to Lewes
Jail, and that he was released with no reason given at
? Will
you kindly supply the committee immediately with
answers to the following questions, as we consider that it is most important
to know the reason for such apparently unconstitutional procedure?
By whose authority was Captain Gonne arrested and upon what charge?
Is it not usual in such cases to levy distraint upon the premises in
respect of which the taxes are due?
By whose authority were orders sent to the Governor of Lewes Jail for
Captain Gonne’s release?
If the imprisonment was a just one, for what reason was he released in
less than 48 hours?
Awaiting the favour of your reply. Faithfully yours,
(Signed) Margaret Parkes.
Magistrate Compliments a Woman Tax Resister.
Miss A[gnes Edith] Metcalfe, B.Sc.,
ex-H.M.I.,
was summoned at Greenwich Police-court on
, for non-payment of
dog license. In a short speech she said that she refused on conscientious
grounds to pay taxes while women had no vote. The magistrate congratulated
Miss Metcalfe on the clearness and eloquence with which she made out her
case. He regretted that the law must take its course, and imposed a fine of
7s. with
2s. costs, recoverable by
distraint. The alternative was one day’s imprisonment. We would like to
contrast this with Miss I[sabelle] Stewart’s case which was identical, but
her sentence was £2 fine or fourteen days’ imprisonment.
Mrs. [Margaret] Kineton Parkes has just returned from Ireland, where
successful public meetings were held in Dublin and Cork, and tax resistance
resolutions passed. She attended, as delegate for the Women’s Tax Resistance
League, the Suffrage Conference held in Dublin, and spoke upon the present
position of Women’s Suffrage. She also took part in the public debate with
the National League for Opposing Women’s Suffrage, on which occasion the
Suffragists won by a large majority.
On , Dr. [Winifred] Patch, of Highbury (Women’s Freedom League), made her second appearance at her public examination in the bankruptcy proceedings brought against her by the Inland Revenue Department, adjourned from .
The crowd of suffragist sympathisers was far larger than on the previous occasion, and included Mrs. Despard, Dr. and Mrs. Clark; Miss Evelyn Sharp, Mrs. Juson Kerr, Mrs. [Barbara] Ayrton Gould, Miss [Bertha] Brewster, Miss Smith Piggott, Miss [Agnes Edith] Metcalf, Mrs. Kineton Parkes, Miss [Kate] Raleigh, Mrs. Julia Wood, Mrs. [Anne] Cobden Sanderson, Miss Gertrude Eaton, Mrs. Mustard, Mrs. Tanner, Miss [Sarah] Benett, and many others.
To vary the proceedings Dr. Patch offered this time to make an affirmation, and answer any questions which seemed to her to merit a reply.
These were not very numerous.
Dr. Patch then stated her position:—
I do not acknowledge the authority of the Court, for it is being employed by the Crown not to fulfill its proper function of adjusting equitably the claims of creditor and debtor, but to enforce an unconstitutional demand, as did the Court of the Star Chamber 250 years ago.
It is to the British Constitution that the British Empire owes its place among the leading nations of the world, and it is the duty of her children to whom her honour is dear to keep her true to those principles.
I was a tax resister before the outbreak of the war.
The political truce with the Government was tacitly accepted by suffragists, and this would have prevented me from beginning tax resistance after war broke out.
I have paid no taxes for many years, and it is a breach of faith of the Government to have just started proceedings against me now.
By taking my money which is at my bank you only prevent me from putting it into War Loan, as I intended to do.
As regards the money left to me by my brother, who fell a few months ago, gallantly fighting for our country, I do not know whether you wish to take this from me.
I am a suffragist, I love my country, but I claim the right to give to my country in my own way what she has no right to take from me by force until women are represented in the Councils of the nation.
I ask that the judgment of bankruptcy against me be annulled.
The Court adjourned the proceedings for another fortnight, pending the receipt of the signed statement of particulars from Dr. Patch, which the authorities are so anxious to add to their documents.
Further developments will be announced.
Luncheon to Dr. Patch at Headquarters
After the proceedings at Bankruptcy-buildings, Dr. Patch was entertained at headquarters to luncheon, for providing which the Minerva Cafe added to its crown of laurels.
Mrs. Despard presided over a large gathering of supporters.
She expressed, amid applause, the warm appreciation and admiration of all for Dr. Patch’s service to the great cause of Votes for Women.
Dr. Clark praised the ability she has displayed in her plucky action, and declared that no class which possesses power gives in without a struggle.
Mrs. Kineton Parkes pointed out the heavy cost at this time of her sacrifice for conscience’ sake, and hoped that a memorial would tell future generations of Dr. Patch’s service to the cause of Votes for Women.
After short speeches from Miss Evelyn Sharp and Mrs. Mustard, Dr. Patch thanked everyone for their support, and used the words of the late Professor Kettle as expressing the attitude of unenfranchised women:
Bound in the toils of hate we may not cease, Free, we are free to be your friends.
But what possibly terrified the Government most was the formation of huge “Political Unions,” whose motto was, “To protect the King and his Ministers against the Boroughmongers.”
At Birmingham the Union included 150,000 persons, who resolved that should the Bill fail to pass again, they would all refuse to pay any more taxes.
[Mary Russell] The Duchess of Bedford has consented to become a member of our Society, and requested us to conduct her protest when distraint has been levied for the amount of her unpaid taxes.
The following Sales took place last week:—
On , Miss Baker, of Torquay, who had refused to pay inhabited house duty, had goods sold by public auction.
At the subsequent meeting Mrs. Kineton Parkes spoke on the reasons for sale to a large crowd.
On , Mrs. [Mary] Sargent Florence and Miss Hayes, of Marlow, Bucks., had their goods sold by public auction.
The sale aroused great interest, and a successful meeting was afterwards held, the speakers being Miss Nina Boyle, Miss [Agnes Edith] Metcalfe, and Miss Amy Hicks.
On , Miss Ina Moncrieff, of Tregunter-road, South Kensington, had her goods sold at Harding’s Auction Rooms.
The speakers at the subsequent meeting were Miss Watson and Mrs. Kineton Parkes.…
Special mention must be made of one of the many Suffrage Societies which sprang into existence during the decade before the outbreak of war.
With the Freedom League originated the idea that in view of the dictum that taxation and representation must go together, a logical protest on the part of voteless women would be to decline to pay Imperial taxes until they should have a share in electing Members of the Imperial Parliament.
From onwards, Mrs. [Charlotte] Despard had adopted this form of protest, with notable results.
In the following year, some of her goods were seized, but difficulties occurred, as one auctioneer after another refused to have anything to do with selling them.
When one was finally found, the sale was attended by a large number of Mrs. Despard’s followers, who succeeded in holding up the proceedings until requested by her to desist.
When her piece of plate was at last put up for sale, the bidding was very brisk, and the article was eventually knocked down to a certain Mr. Luxembourg for double its estimated value.
This gentleman insisted on returning it to Mrs. Despard, who accepted it on behalf of the Women’s Freedom League, among whose archives, suitably inscribed in memory of the occasion, it holds an honoured place.
In subsequent years, various devices were adopted with the object of compelling Mrs. Despard’s submission.
Thus she, for whom prison had no terrors, was threatened with imprisonment in default of payment; she was summoned before the High Court, when, in her absence, judgment was pronounced against her.
On only two other occasions, however, was distraint levied.
, a separate society, with the above title, was formed, with Mrs. [Margaret] Kineton Parkes as secretary, for experience showed that a special knowledge of the technicalities of the law was necessary, and special machinery had to be set up.
Those who addressed themselves to this business were rewarded by the discovery of curious anomalies and irregularities of the law where women were concerned.
Thus, for instance, it was revealed that whereas married women are not personally liable to taxation (the Income Tax Act of never having been brought into line with the Married Women’s Property Acts), nevertheless payment of taxes was illegally exacted of them whenever possible.
With the assistance of the expert advice of Mrs. [Ethel] Ayres Purdie and others, many cases of injustice and overcharges were exposed and circumvented, Somerset House officials being mercilessly worried.
Imprisonments for Non-Payment of Taxes
It was in , that the first imprisonments in connection with this particular form of protest took place.
Miss [Constance] Andrews of Ipswich was sent to prison for a week for refusing to pay her dog’s tax, and about the same time, Mrs. [Emma] Sproson of Wolverhampton served a similar sentence for the same offence.
The latter was, however, rearrested, and sentenced this time to five weeks’ imprisonment, being placed in the Third Division in Stafford Gaol.
She thereupon entered on the hunger strike, and on the personal responsibility of the Governor, without instructions from the Home Office, she was transferred to the First Division, where she completed her sentence.
Imprisonments in various parts of the country thereafter took place with some frequency, but whenever possible this extreme course appears to have been avoided, and resisters’ goods were seized and sold by public auction, the officials reserving the right of adopting whichever course they deemed most suitable.
By this means, auctioneers’ sale rooms, country market-places, corners of busy thoroughfares, and all manner of unlikely spots, became the scene of protests and demonstrations.
Miss Housman’s Imprisonment
The case which excited the most interest was that of Miss Clemence Housman, sister of the well-known author, who, having stoutly declined to pay the trifling sum of 4s. 6d. (which by dint of writs, High Court Procedure, etc., in due course mounted up to over £6), and not having goods which could be seized, was arrested by the Sheriff’s Officer, and conveyed to Holloway, there to be detained until she paid.
A storm of protest arose, meetings being held at Mr. Housman’s residence in Kensington, outside Holloway Gaol, and in Hyde Park on .
After a week’s incarceration, Miss Housman, who had been singularly well treated in the First Division, was unconditionally released, and on inquiring of the Solicitor of Inland Revenue how she stood in the matter, she was informed that it was closed by her arrest and subsequent release.
By way of celebrating victories such as these, the League held a John Hampden dinner at the Hotel Cecil in , when some 250 guests assembled and listened to speeches from prominent Suffragists of both sexes, when we may be sure that the moral of the story of John Hampden was duly pointed, and many a modern parallel was quoted.
A novel feature of the evening’s proceedings was the appearance of a toast mistress, in the person of Mrs. Arncliffe Sennett.
Mr. Mark Wilks’ Imprisonment
In an incident occurred which illustrated both the anomalous position which married women occupy under the law and also the impossibility of enforcing the law where consent is withheld.
Dr. Elisabeth Wilks, being one of those who held with the Liberal dictum that taxation and representation should go together, had for some years past refused to pay her Imperial taxes, and on two occasions a distraint had been executed on her goods, and they had been sold by public auction.
Then it struck her that her “privileged” position under the law would afford her protection from further annoyance of this kind, and being a married woman, she referred the officials to her husband.
When application was made to the latter for his wife’s income tax return, he told the harassed officials that he did not possess the required information, nor did he know how to procure it.
After some delays and negotiations, the Treasury kindly undertook to make the assessment itself, charging Mr. Wilks at the unearned rate, though Mrs. Wilks was well known to be a medical woman, whose income was derived from her practice.
After over two years of correspondence and threats of imprisonment, since Mr. Wilks sturdily refused to produce the sum demanded, he was arrested on and conveyed to Brixton Gaol, there to be detained until he paid.
Still he remained obdurate, while friends outside busied themselves on his behalf.
Protests poured into the Treasury offices, Members of Parliament were inundated with the like, deputations waited on everybody concerned, and public meetings on the subject were held in great number.
The result was that, at the end of a fortnight, Mr. Wilks was once more a free man.
Other Tax-Resisters
Legislators had recently provided women with additional reasons for refusing to pay taxes.
In the National Insurance Act became the law of the land, and defects in that Act as far as it concerned women, which were pointed out at the time, have become more and more apparent every year that the Act has been in force.
Some few modifications were made in their favour, but they had no effective means of expressing their views.
Again, by means of a Resolution, which occupied a few hours of discussion on , Members of Parliament voted themselves a salary of £400 a year, and only one member, Mr. Walter McLaren, raised his voice to protest against the fresh injustice which this proposal inflicted on women, who were not only subject to legislation in the framing of which they had no voice, but were further called upon to pay those who thus legislated for them…
The Revenue authorities did not repeat the experiment of arresting any women resisters on whom it was not possible to levy distraint, with the result that the Women’s Tax-Resistance League claimed to have a growing list of members who paid no taxes, and who, in spite of repeated threats of imprisonment, were still at large.
Distraint for non-payment was, however, frequent, with the result that up and down the country, and as far north as Arbroath, the gospel of tax-resistance was carried, and secured many adherents, including members of the enfranchised portion of the community, some of whom, in their official capacities, gave public support to the rebels.
Many auctioneers of the better class refused to sell the goods of tax-resisters, and it is on record that one who had done so sent his fee as a donation to the League.
Two members of the League, Mrs. [Isabella] Darent Harrison of St. Leonard’s and Mrs. [Kate] Harvey of Bromley, barricaded themselves in their houses, and succeeded in keeping the officials who came to make the distraint at bay, the former for a period of several weeks, and the latter for a period of no less than eight months.
In both cases, an entry was eventually made by force, but much public sympathy was evinced in both cases, and crowded meetings of protest were held in the largest local halls available.
It is interesting to record that on , a statue was unveiled in the market-place of Aylesbury to the memory of John Hampden, who in the time of Charles Ⅰ. had refused the ship money which that monarch had illegally levied on his subjects.
The sum involved was the trifling one of 20s., but, rather than pay it, John Hampden suffered himself to be imprisoned.
He was subsequently released without a stain upon his character, and a statue to this rebel stands in no less hallowed a spot than the House of Commons, of which assembly he was a Member.
An application on the part of the Women’s Tax-Resistance League of the twentieth century to be officially represented at the unveiling by Lord Rothschild of the statue erected to his memory in Aylesbury was met with a refusal.
That the spirit which animated this seventeenth-century fighter was not, however, dead was evident when, at the conclusion of the official ceremony, a little procession of tax-resisters, supported by men sympathizers, approached the statue and silently laid a wreath at its foot…
Tax Resistance
Throughout tax resisters continued to defy the revenue officials, with varying results.
Among those who resisted paying their taxes for the first time may be mentioned [Mary Russell] the Duchess of Bedford, Miss Beatrice Harraden, Mrs. Flora Annie Steele, and Miss [Ethel] Sargant, the last-named of whom presided over a section of the British Association later in the year, being the first woman to fill such a position.
Mrs. Harvey successfully withstood another siege in connection with her inhabited house duty, and her goods, when eventually seized, failed to realize the sum required by some £8, for the uproar created in the auction-room by sympathizers was so great that the auctioneer abandoned his task.
Mrs. Harvey also refused to take out a licence for her gardener (by name Asquith), or to stamp his Insurance card.
For these two offences she was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment, in default of a fine, but was released at the end of one month, in a very weak condition of health, which was in no way attributable to her own “misconduct.”
There were many other cases of resistance to the Insurance Act, it being an open secret that the Freedom League did not insure its employees.
Captain Gonne, who refused to pay his taxes as a protest against the treatment to which women were being subjected, was also arrested, but was released within a few hours, the reason being, so it was claimed, that in arresting him the revenue officials had been guilty of a serious technical blunder.
Several other resisters besides Mrs. Harvey barricaded their houses against the tax collector, and at Hastings the demonstration arranged in connection with the sale of Mrs. Darent Harrison’s goods led to an organized riot, the result being that the local Suffrage Club brought an action against the Corporation for damage done, which they won.
Undeterred by warnings that it would be impossible to hold a public meeting in Hastings in support of tax resistance, the League nevertheless determined to do so, and, as a matter of fact, everything passed off in a quiet and orderly manner, Lady Brassey being in the chair.
In subsequent years, this policy of open and constitutional rebellion on tax resistance lines has been maintained by Mrs. Darent Harrison.
