WOMEN PROTEST.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18670, 20 April 1926, Page 7

WOMEN PROTEST.

DEiMONSTRATION AGAINST STRIKES.

HUGE LONDON PROCESSION. (bi cable—press association—copyright.) (becter's telegrams.) LONDON, April 18. The largest demonstration of women since the days of the suffragettes was carried out under the auspices of the Women's Guild of Empire, when 20,000 marched from the City to Albert Hall to take part in an antistrike meeting. The gathering was composed of all classes of the community. A large proportion of the demonstrators reached the metropolis by special trains and char-a-bancs from Scotland, Wales, and the provinces. There was some display of unsympathetic feeling, and a noisy scene greeted the arrival of ''General" Mrs Flora Drummond and her chief supporters at the assembling-point on horseback, a section of the crowd lining the pavement hissing and deriding them.

Among the horsewomen who acted as outriders or marshals were one of the bridesmaids of the Duchess of York and several members of the Whaddon Hunt.

Some men attempted to hold a meeting at the head of the procession, just before the procession started, but the police moved them on.

Dense Crowds Line the Eoute. ■ The march was watched by dense crowds all along the route, and the marchess were subjected to cries and groans from men walking alongside distributing bills setting out the case for the miners and the engineers, also a demand for the establishment of Soviets in England. Mounted police prevented a few in tjieir attempts to break the ranks.

A slight scuffle occurred at Hyde Park Corner, between a knot of Communists and some British Fascists, in which the latter captured two flags. As the procession neared Albert Hall, the women started London's latest craze song, "Valencia." Outside the hall, rival feelings were expressed in the forms of booing and cheering and the singing of the National Anthem and "Land of Hope and Glory," the patriotic songs being icountered by the singing of the "Red Flag." Resolutions were passed at the Albert* Hall meeting, denouncing strikes and lockouts, the speakers including the wives of South Wales and Lothian miners, of railwaymen, and of Glasgow engineers. Afterwards subscriptions for the cause, exceeding £6OOO, were presented to the new president of the guild, Lady Muriel Gore-Brown.

SOVIET PROPOSES HELP FOR MINERS. MOSCOW, April 17. . The executive bureau of the Soviet Trade Union International suggested to the Amsterdam International that they should jointly organise assistance and support for the British miners, emphasising the international character the British mining dispute.