Different Points of View: 3
Writer X: Women had no vote at the time, and the suffragettes agitated to get the vote for women. As a result, they often landed up in prison, where they sometimes went on hunger strike.
The government did not know how to deal with hunger strikes in prison. The Home Secretary, Reginald McKenna, said: "There are four alternative ways of dealing with it: the first is to let them die in prison, the second is to deport them; the third is to treat them as lunatics, and the fourth is to give them the vote."It is a pity that he and the liberals did not adopt the fourth method.
Instead, he found a fifth alternative - the so-called "Cat and Mouse" Act. This allowed prisoners to be released temporarily on medical grounds and then recalled when they were eating and well again. Emmeline Pankhurst was recalled to jail eight times under this act.
Writer Y: At first, the government did not know how to deal with hunger strikes in prison. The Home Secretary, Reginald McKenna, said: "There are four alternative ways of dealing with it: the first is to let them die in prison, the second is to deport them; the third is to treat them as lunatics, and the fourth is to give them the vote."
At last, however, the government came up with a fifth alternative - a clever idea called the "Cat and Mouse" Act. This allowed prisoners to be released temporarily on medical grounds and then recalled when they were eating and well again. Emmeline Pankhurst was recalled to jail eight times under this act.
Writer X is on the side of the government
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