TRAFALGAR SQUARE RIOT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 107, 6 May 1913, Page 5

TRAFALGAR SQUARE RIOT.

WOMEN MOB THE POLICE.

SCKEAaETNG STSUGGLrKG MASS LONDON, May 5. At tbo ''free speech" demonstration in Trafalgar Square yesterday the attendance totalled nO.OOO people. Messrs Kcir Hardi" (Labour M.P.). J. C. Wedgwood, and .T. Miirton (liberal M.P.'s). and Mrs Desj>.-ird (president of tin , . Wnmfn's Freedom i-cajiup) dt-i'vired speeches in which they denounced the restriction imposed upon the frcn'otn of speech by the prohibition of suffragettes' oppn-;iir im'otinpx.

The arrival of v trades procession, in which a group of riuffragettps wcro carrying Hags, started trouble. Tlie \romen attempted to mount the plinth of the Xcleon column, but the police stopped them. A couple of socialists also essayed to climb the plinth, and the police threw them down. For an hour afterwards serif us conflicts took place between the po':cc and the mob. A solid mass of men ant' women hurled itself against the constables surrounding the column. Mr Keir Hardie urged the crowd to disperse. There ivas much screaming from the women, who were wedged together in a struggling mass. The police showed the greatest ferbearance, but were compelled to hit in selfdefence. Some were badly handled in fighting the hooligan element. \. crowd of people broke up a uffragcttos' meeting in Hyde Park yesrerday.