Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913 was viewed as violating basic human rights, not only of the suffragettes but of other prisoners. The Act's nickname of "Cat and Mouse Act", referring to the way the government seemed to play with prisoners as a cat may with a captured mouse, underlined how the cruelty of repeated releases and re-imprisonments turned the suffragettes from targets of scorn to objects of sympathy. The Asquith government's implementation of the Act caused the militant WSPU and the suffragettes to perceive Asquith as the enemy — an enemy to be vanquished in what the organisation saw as an all-out war. A related
The Fifth-Column Mouse The Fifth-Column Mouse The Fifth-Column Mouse (later reissued as "Fifth Column Mouse") is a 1943 Warner Bros. animated cartoon in the "Merrie Melodies" series. Directed by Friz Freleng, the cartoon features a band of mice who engage in war against a cat. The short was given a Blue Ribbon reissue. The short film begins with a pleasant group of brown mice – to the tune of “Ain't We Got Fun?” – who are enjoying various water sports in a kitchen sink. Lurking just outside the house is a sinister cat who, after breaking in, gains the confidence of a dim-witted