The Suffragette

The Suffragette newspaper, 25th July 1913.
The cartoon on the front cover depicts a prison doctor and Prime Minster Asquith standing over a Suffragette prisoner weakened by force feeding. Titled 'The Quality of Mercy' the cartoon mocks the introduction of the Prisoner's Temporary Discharge (for Ill Health) Act passed by the Liberal government in 1913. The act allowed all imprisoned suffragettes weakened by hunger strike to be released temporarily, only to be re-imprisoned once they had recovered. The suffragettes renamed this 'letting them go; then catching them again' policy 'The Cat and Mouse Act'. The cartoon refers to the dangerously weakened condition of the prisoners who endured hunger strike and force-feeding, many of whom suffered long term health problems as a result.
The artist of the cartoon was Ruby Lindsay (1885 - 1919) who signed herself Ruby Lind. Ruby was the wife of the left-wing cartoonist Will Dyson. They arrived in England from Australia c. 1909.