24 JUNE 1911, Page 2

The various woman suffrage societies availed themselves of the imminence

of the Coronation to close their ranks and organize a monster demonstration in support of the demand for the vote. On Saturday afternoon 40,000 women assembled on the Embankment, took up their positions, and marched, via Pall Mall and Piccadilly, to the various halls appointed for meetings. From a spectacular point of view nothing could have been more picturesque and impressive than the pro. cession, with its historical figures and groups, admirably costumed, its kaleidoscopic profusion of banners, and its hundred bands. The Car of Empire was a thing of beauty, far surpassing the crude symbolism of Lord Mayors' shows; and as a demonstration of the capacity of women to organize, marshal, and carry out a beautiful and orderly pageant, with the assistance of hundreds of police and a hundred bands of male performers, the procession was an immense success. But it appealed to the eye rather than the reason, and leaves the question of the suffrage exactly where it was before.