CLASH IN PARIS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25328, 30 October 1947, Page 7

CLASH IN PARIS

COMMUNISTS BREAK POLICE CORDON ATTEMPT TO PREVENT MEETING (Rec. 7 p.m.) PA&IS. October 28. Twelve hundred police, with armed troops in reserve, failed to hold a crowd of 8000 Communists who smashed through barricades in the Avenue Wagram last night to break up an anti-Soviet meeting in Wagram Hall. The police used batons, but sheer weight of numbers forced the Communists through the cordons without any general fighting developing. While some of the police battled with 8000 Communists at one end of the street, a crowd of about 25.000 gathered at the other end, where police struggled to prevent the two mobs joining. k The police used two lines of lorries to build a barricade.

The Communists’ gathering followed a call in the newspaper “L’Humanite” that all friends of Russia should unite to prevent a meeting which a former French Senator, Mr Gautherot, had organised privately to bring together “victims of Soviet oppression.” The crowd which broke the cordons smashed a wooden barricade surrounding the entrance to the hall and prevented Mr Gautherot’s guests entering. The police formed lines and used folded capes as shields. They slowly forced the crowd back. The police charged when some of the Communists threw paving-stones, injuring about 12 police. Many persons in the crowd were bleeding from cuts. The Communists shouted pro-Boviet slogans''and chanted the Internationale.

A group of press photographers suffered injuries when the police prevented them taking pictures. Their clothes were torn and their cameras smashed.

After the police had pushed back the Communist demonstrators Mr Gautherot’s meeting opened Mr Gautherot commented that the Communists had not frightened them, but merely convinced them that the Communists were afraid of the truth spreading.