Letter from Annie Allan to Caroline Phillips
AssociatedAssociated with
Caroline Phillips
(Aberdeen, Scotland, 1874 - 1956)
Date5 February 1908
Object NameLetter
Mediumpaper and ink
ClassificationsSocieties
DimensionsPage 1: 26 × 20.4cm
Page 2: 26 × 20.4cm
Page 2: 26 × 20.4cm
AcquisitionPresented in 1988.
LocationOn Display - Gallery 14
Object numberABDMS082722
About MeThis is part of a collection of documents relating to Caroline Phillips (1874-1956), an Aberdonian journalist who was involved in the women's suffrage movement. The collection contains important correspondence between Phillips and key leaders in the suffrage movement, including Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst.67 Forrest Avenue
Aberdeen
Feb. 5/ 08
Dear Miss Phillips
Your note of yesterday to hand I have not the faintest idea who "Liberalis" is, nor do I care & I think it is entirely a matter for yourself to decide whether you answer it or not.
Personally & speaking frankly, I do not consider the letter far from the mark, I have no hesitation in saying I do not think the W.S.P.U. "played the game" in connection with “The Suffrage Demonstration". Mrs Webster, Mrs Bryant & many others had no right on the platform. They were not invited by Mr Duncan & no one else should have gone. I object strongly to Miss Pankhurst taking up the whole hour in a defence of tactics pursued, we went to hear an educative address on Suffrage not to hear the W.S.P.U. extolled all the time. It was not courteous. We ought to have had Mrs Pethick Lawrence, she would convert where Miss
Pankhurst only irritates.
My strongest objection of all was to the selling of your literature, if I had noticed that stall before the meeting (but I do not think it was there then) I should not have fulfilled my promise & gone on that platform. It was not the W.S.P.U. meeting, therefore I considered it distinctly dishonourable to have erected it & sold your "Votes for Women" etc,
I have not taken the stand I have in order to join the W.S.P.U. but I have no objection to my reasons being known.
I have done it firstly because I will not allow any Committee under the sun to curtail my personal liberty, or call me to account for any action I may see fit to take as a private individual.
Secondly - because I put principle before party, & I realise that the Liberal Women have to show this Liberal Government that they are in dead earnest over this great question.
With kind regards
Yrs sincerely
Annie F. Allan
Why have you marked your letter private?
More About Me
Did you know Caroline Phillips was a journalist in her day? She wrote for the Aberdeen Daily Journal. Find out more about Caroline and local women's history in Gallery 14 upstairs!
Exhibitions
Caroline Phillips
Caroline Phillips
Caroline Phillips
