As Berry and I Were Saying Read Online Free PDF Page A

I went with him everywhere. One of his many duties was to appear for the Crown at Bow Street, when militant suffragists were required to answer charges of obstruction and assault in the vicinity of the Palace of Westminster.
    “We had already appeared on several occasions, when Mrs Pankhurst announced that on a certain evening in June she proposed to lead a great number of her adherents from Trafalgar Square to the Houses of Parliament. She was at once informed by the Commissioner of Police that she and her followers would not be permitted to approach the Palace of Westminster. This notice, she ignored. On the evening before the day she had fixed for the demonstration, the Commissioner rang up Muskett and suggested that, since many arrests would almost certainly be made, it would be as well for him to see for himself the kind of conduct for which it would be his duty to prosecute the offenders at Bow Street on the following morning. Muskett agreed, and it was then arranged that he should join the Commissioner at Cannon Row Police Station at, I think, eight o’clock. Muskett then asked if he could bring me, and the Commissioner said yes.”
    “This conversation,” said Berry, “was on a private line?”
    “Yes,” said I. “As well as the ordinary telephone, we had a private line to Scotland Yard. The operators were, of course, police.”
    “Speed or secrecy?”
    “Both. There were certain conversations one didn’t wish overheard.”
    Daphne put in her oar.
    “For years after you entered that office, darling, you were terribly quiet.”
    “That’s right,” said Jill.
    “The first day I came,” said I, “Muskett said, ‘You will see and hear many things in this office which you must never repeat.’ He stopped there and looked at me. Then, ‘I never speak twice,’ he said. ‘You needn’t be afraid, sir,’ I said. ‘I shall never talk.’ And then, after that, for a year I was in Treasury Chambers. I think, perhaps, those two years rather tied up my tongue.”
    “I’ll give you this,” said Berry – “you kept your word.”
    “Thank you,” said I. “I know you’d’ve done the same.”
    “And now,” said Jill, “go on with the suffragettes.”
    “Well, we dined early, walked across the park and then across Whitehall to Cannon Row. It was a perfect evening: more people were about than usual, because, I suppose, they wanted to see the show: and there were a lot of police. The militant suffragist rally was in Trafalgar Square, and the latest news at Cannon Row was that the women were about to march. Almost at once the Commissioner arrived. I was introduced, and we then proceeded, all three, under police escort to an island in the middle of Whitehall, quite close to Parliament Square. As we gained the island, a police cordon was being drawn about fifteen paces further on across Whitehall. There were mounted police waiting in Parliament Square, but they didn’t want to use them if they could help it, because, on former occasions, the horses had been stabbed with hat-pins, and things like that.”
    “The filthy beasts,” cried Jill.
    “I entirely agree. That was vile.”
    “Well, there were police reserves all over the place, and Superintendent Wells was on horseback moving from spot to spot. Inspector Jarvis, a very nice man whose age was about forty-five, was in charge of the cordon and was standing just in front. There still was plenty of light, and after a little we saw the procession approaching along Whitehall. Onlookers were approaching with it, on the pavements on either side. The procession was led by Mrs Pankhurst. I think her daughters were behind her, but I can’t be sure. They passed us and had almost reached the cordon, when Jarvis stepped forward. ‘Good evening, Mrs Pankhurst,’ he said, for they knew one another well. ‘I’m afraid you know that we can’t let you and these ladies go any further.’ Whilst he was speaking the women behind Mrs Pankhurst were moving