FUNERAL OF VICTIMS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27193, 10 November 1953, Page 11

FUNERAL OF VICTIMS

THREE-MILE LONG PROCESSION

(Rec. 8 pjn.) TRIESTE, November 8. A three-mile long funeral- procession in Trieste followed the bodies of six Italians killed in street battles with the police. Thousands of wreaths and .banners were carried through the streets draped with Italian flags at halfmast. Street lights, wrapped with black muslin, were turned on in the noonday sun as the cortege passed, and three bands led the six motor-hearses bearing the bodies.

Representatives of the Italian Government and all political parties walked slowly behind the coffins, which were gradually buried under thousands of carnations thrown from windows along the route. The civilian police wene virtually withdrawn during the funeral to avoid possible further clashes. The correspondent in Trieste of the Belgrade Radio said the funeral procession for the riot victims ‘‘turned into an irredentist demonstration, with a crowd supposed to be mourners carrying the coats-of-arms of Jugoslav towns.”

The Jugoslav Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr Alec Bebler, tonight received the British Ambassador, Sir Iv© Mallet, and the American Charge d’Affaires, Mr Wallner, at their request.