UPROARIOUS SCENES.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 72, 25 March 1919, Page 5

UPROARIOUS SCENES.

MEETING OF SOLDIERS. TWO MEN ASSAULTED. MELBOURNE, March 10. Uproarious scenes occurred at a public meeting arranged by the Returned Soldiers and War Workers' Industrial Union, held in the Melbourne Town Hall to-night. The advertised object of the gathering was to protect: against Bolshevism, "eligibles" and the One Big Union, but it was early made apparent that the promoters of the meeting were to be confronted with an organised opposition. The proceedings became lively from the very outset. There was a large audience, including a number of returned soldiers wearing the badge of the Returned Sailors and Soldiers' Imperial League, and many women. Mr. W. E- Quirk, the chairman, said that certain promises had been made to ihe men who had gone to t'le war, and these had not been fulfilled. The returned soldier was out for a fair deal, and how was he to get it; There were some organisations which said to the soldier come and join us: we will look after you. One. such organisation was in Lygon Street. (Cheers and hoots). How had that organisation looked after the soldier when he was over at the front appealing for reinforcements 't They had said, "We will keep the home fires burning while you do the fighting for us." (Cheers and some hoots.) Now, when the returned soldier sought to warm himself at some of those home fires he found that they had gone out. (Cries of shame.) Therefore, he had been compelled ti> form his own organisation.

At this stag! Mr. C'onsidine, M.H.R. for the Barrier, arrived, and was greeted with mingled cheers and hoots. Subsequently the meeting degenerated into a pandemonium. Mr. Piinental. secretary of the \inion which convened the meeting, after speaking, was assaulted on the platform by a returned soldier, and at the termination of the proceeding? a prominent T,abour man was hauled off the platform by a man wearing the badge of the returned soldier. Mr. Pimental, in his speech, said that they were organising to safeguard the industrial equilibrium of Australia. The extremists were mostly aliens, a statement that was received with ironical choers. Turning to Mr. Considine, who had taken a seat on the platform, the speaker asked. Where have you been during the war* Mr. Considine: I have been with the profiteers, holding up the home front. (Cheers and hoots.) The promoters of the meeting, Mr. Pimental added, had no intention of creating a strike-breaking machine, out against the Trades Hall machine and the One Big Union, they would strike, and strike hard.

It was at this stage that Mr. Pimental was attacked, but lie did not appear to be greatly hurt. The later incident, when a well-known Labour partisan pushed from the platform, caused a free fight on the platform between half a dozen persons, which the police had to terminate. Xo resolutions were put. and the proceedings terminated in uproar-