POLITICAL RIOTS IN PARIS

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21906, 6 October 1936, Page 9

POLITICAL RIOTS IN PARIS

POLICE ATTACK FASCIST DEMONSTRATORS

COMMUNISTS DEMAND ARMS FOR SPAIN

(UNITED PEES 3 ASSOCIATION —COPTEIGHT.)

(Received October 5, 8.50 pjn.)

PARIS, October 4.

Armed police and mounted Republican guards numbering 20.000 established an impregnable barrier ardund the Parc des Princes. They repelled more than 15,000 members of the Social party (an organisation headed by the Fascist leader, Colonel de la Rocque), who were advancing to invade the park ana surrounding streets in order to prevent a communist meeting. There were many clashes, and 1300 arrests were made. The chief disturbances occurred in the neighbourhood of the Parc des Princes, where 3000 communists established themselves in the early (morning to prevent the seizure of j the stadium by the Social party. The ■•police barricaded the area. Army reconnaissance aeroplanes watched the crowds assembling and directed the, police by wireless to the danger points, where a dozen columns of the Social party were advancing, necessitating numerous charges. Members of the Social party smashed windows and overturned taxis. Eight police and 200 demonstrators were injured.

The police in the afternoon had sufficiently dispersed the demonstrators to enable 40,000 communists to assemble at a communist meeting, which, passed a resolution demanding, in view of the alleged Italian and German help for the Spanish insurgents, the raising of the ban on the export of arms to Spain.