HELD AT OSTEND.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 13, 16 January 1929, Page 7

HELD AT OSTEND.

BRITISH LABOURITES.

'Austen Chamberlain To Blame/

Says Communist M.P.

NOW ALLOWED TO PROCEED.

(Australian and N.Z. Press Association.)

(Received 12.30 p.m.)

LONDON, January 15,

A message from Ostend says that Mr. J. Maxton, Labour M.P. for Bridgeton, Glasgow; Mr. S. Saklatvala, Communist M.P. for Battersea North; and Mr. Bridgeman, secretary of the League Against Imperialism, were going to attend a meeting of that organisation, when they were arrested by order of the Belgian authorities at Ostend.

Mr. A. J. Cook, general secretary of the Miners' Federation, and Mr. Alexander Gossip, secretary of the Furnishing Trades Union, were allowed to proceed. The Ostend correspondent of the British United Press Association says Messrs. Maxton, Saklatvala and

Bridgeman were detained by order of

the Belgian Minister of Justice. They were admitted to parole and spent the night at the Atlantic Hotel.

AU three were ordered to take the first steamer back to England to-day. No reason was given for this action.

"Austen Chamberlain is to blame for this," declared Mr. Saklatvala. "We were given the option of spending the night on the quay side, in a police lockup or at a hotel. We chpse the latter. I protest strongly against the unconstitutional methods by which armed men forcibly took our passports and railway tickets and baggage and will insist on being allowed to proceed to Germany.

"The British Foreign Office must have influenced the Belgian Foreign Office. We have been fighting for open seaports and shall now fight for open railroads."

Following a full examination of their papers, Saklatvala, Maxton and Bridgeman were permitted to continue their journey to Cologne. The Ministry of Justice announces that they were detained because their papers were not in order and because it was believed that a meeting of the League of Anti-Impeii-alism was to be held in Belgium.