Sujet
'The Cat and Mouse Act', 1914. Artist: Unknown
Légende
'The Cat and Mouse Act', 1914. Suffragette poster which graphically depicts the workings of the Prisoner's Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health Act, known by the WSPU as the Cat and Mouse Act. During 1913 and 1914 the force-feeding of suffragettes on hunger-strike stopped. Instead, the weakened campaigners were released from prison on a special license but were liable to be re-arrested to complete their sentence when their health improved. The large, bloody-toothed cat represents the police, the prison authorities and the Home Secretary, Reginald McKenna, who was responsible for the Act. The 'mouse' is a small and injured suffragette. Intended to wear down the morale and resolve of the suffragettes, the Cat and Mouse Act failed in both theory and practice: when suffragettes were released they were nursed in suffragette nursing homes and then went into hiding, from where many of them continued to commit yet more militant 'outrages'.
Museum of London
Date
1914
Crédit
Photo12/Heritage Images/Museum of London
Notre référence
HRM19A84_108
Model release
Non
Licence
Droits gérés
Format disponible
49,9Mo (2,3Mo) / 28,4cm x 44,1cm / 3351 x 5207 (300dpi)