KP/AK/5/3/2 - Letter, Norman Swallow (BBC) to Annie Kenney, 16/5/1951 (including Annie's speech, 1908)

KP/AK/5/3/2

Item

Letter, Norman Swallow (BBC) to Annie Kenney, 16/5/1951 (including Annie's speech, 1908)

16/5/1951
1908

1 Letters (typescript)

Swallow, Norman
Kenney, Annie, 1879-1953recipient

Norman Swallow writes in relation to his planned TV programme 'The Suffragette' (1951), based on the life of Charlotte Marsh. Annie was consulting on the piece. He encloses a 1908 speech by Annie [transcript below], which he intends to use in the programme. “I have been fighting for the last two years, and fighting very hard to get the vote for women, so that women may say what laws they want to have, & they make protect against laws that are unjust or unfair to them”. She finishes her speech with a call for women to join the struggle: “It lies within you to win this great battle for our own freedom; your fate is in your hands.”

Transcript:

THE BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
Head Office: Broadcasting House, London, W.1
Alexandra Palace, Wood Green, London, N.22
tELEPHONE: TUDOR 6420 CABLES: BROADCASTS, LONDON
INLAND TELEGRAMS: BROADCASTS, TELEX, LONDON
16th May 1951
Dear Mrs Taylor,
I am sending a copy of my letter to Christabel as I promised. It would be a very great help if you could back it up with one of your own!

I shall be sending you a rough script for comments next week; meanwhile I include a copy of a speech of yours which I would like to quote if I may. May I please keep the magazines a few days longer……..they are very useful?

Thank you for your great kindness to me last week.

Yours sincerely,

Norman Swallow [Note: Handwritten signature]

Television Service

[Page 2]

Speech By Annie Kenney.

It is a sad thing that women have no vote. They cannot send men to Parliament who will represent their point of view or who will fight for their interests. I have been fighting for the last two years and fighting very hard to get the vote for women, so that women may say what laws they want to have, & they may protest against laws that are unjust or unfair to them. And the men who are in Parliament say ‘you do not want the vote’, that you do not care; that it is only a few women who care about it. Now I believe that when you know what the Vote means, and what is going to happen to you if you do not get the vote, you will care. I believe you will feel as I feel, and as thousands of other women feel about it. come out and join us. It lies within you to win this great battle for our freedom; your fate is in your hands. The WSPU is fighting in your interest. Let us be true to that motto which we have in our Trade Unions; “United we stand, Divided we fall.” If the womanhood of this country was to be free, it must stand united. We women must be true to each other.”
(1908)

Copyright: BBC.

A digital copy may be viewed at Suffragette Stories: https://suffragettestories.omeka.net/items/show/60