Struggles

Friday, February 15th., Hotel San Remo, Nice.

I am here for a few weeks of productive writing with Phillpotts, and to enjoy some better weather. Also I must take stock, and decide how best to proceed, in connection with Mme. Soulie. She came, unexpectedly, to see me off from the Gare de Lyon which I took to be more or less a declaration of commitment should I want to reciprocate. I like her very much and we seem to be suited sexually, which is a great thing. I think that if I offered to put her 'under my protection' as the French say then she would be willing, but perhaps I want more than that. Or perhaps I want nothing at all! I have written to her laying out something of my character, experience and prospects, but have left the future open for the present. This time away, though hard, will give me space to decide what will be for the best. I am approaching forty and have declared several times, and to several people, that I will marry before I am forty. Perhaps I will.

I read in the continental Daily Mail of the largest clashes yet between suffragettes and the police in London yesterday. The trouble started after a decision by what the movement calls 'its parliament', which has been set up in Caxton Hall, to present a resolution to its male counterpart in Westminster. The struggles between the women and the officers, many it seems on horseback, lasted for more than five hours and marked the most ferocious battle yet in women's war for the vote. As the women marched through the streets at dusk mounted police rode into the procession to break it up. The women were scattered and some had their clothes torn and bodies bruised, but they still fought to get to the House. Fifteen of them in fact reached the Strangers' Lobby where they tried to hold a meeting before being arrested. Apparently Miss Pankhurst and others will appear in court today. Needless to say the leader writer in the Mail borders on the apoplectic in condemning these women for so forgetting their place as to challenge the political order. The presence of mounted police ready to intervene suggests to me that the government had prior knowledge of the womens' intentions. In my opinion heavy-handed tactics are sure to backfire.