ABSTRACT
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt was a poet, traveller, anti-imperialist, and diplomat. In the early months of 1888, Blunt had served a two-month prison sentence under the Crimes Act in Ireland in Galway and Kilmainham gaols, for calling an anti-eviction meeting in a proclaimed district. His treatment was that of an ordinary prisoner with hard labour. In September 1909, Blunt spoke to Winston Churchill about his prison time, and promised to send him a paper if ever Churchill went to the Home Office. This Blunt did with the present document in February 1910, when Churchill was appointed as Home Secretary. Blunt’s memo sought to persuade Churchill that a legal distinction should be drawn between political and ordinary offenders. Suffragettes, said Blunt, should be given the privileges of the first division, along with anyone who for their opinion’s sake had disobeyed the law, and they ought not to be force fed.
