Police In Belgravia Fight Demonstraton

Press, Volume C, Issue 29444, 21 February 1961, Page 18

Police In Belgravia Fight Demonstraton

(Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, February 20. Twenty-four men and two women will appear in Court today on charges arising out of last night’s “battle of Belgravia” between police and a crowd demonstrating over the slaying of Mr Patrice Lumumba.

The battle began when some of the 3000 demonstrators. African and white, tried to get through a cordon of 100 policemen protecting the Belgian Embassy in Eaton square, in the Belgravia district of London. A rally held by the demonstrators at the foot of Nelson’s column in Trafalgar square started peacefully enough. Organised by the Movement for Colonial Freedom and the Committee of African Organisations, it had been addressed by a Labour M.P.. Mr Fenner Brockway, a Northern Rhodesian nationalist leader in London for the constitutional conference. Mr Kenneth Kaunda. and other African leadera. Police Bar Way But when the demonstrators marched, led by a pipe band and chanting “Lumumba Lumumba” to Eaton square, they found their way barred by a line of policemen with linked arms. Near-panic was caused when a number of rioters set fire to banners bearing slogans such as "Belgians get out of the Congo” and flung them under the horses of the mounted police. Chauffeurs of Rolls-Royce limousines parked in this expensive quarter of London tried hard to drive away, but could not move for the crowds. , Shouts of "let’s burn down the Embassy” were heard. Women screamed. Banners were used like flails. Police helmets were knocked off. A foot constable was knocked out. The mounted police charged A shouting coloured man smashed a six-foot pole over a horse’s head. A white girl with a torch was among the 30 or so demonstrators bundled into a police van and taken to police headquarters When the 90-minute battle

was over, there were broken railings and debris in Eaton square. Mr Brockway was allowed through to deliver a letter of protest over Mr Lumumba's death to the Belgian Ambassador. Clash In Marseilles In Marseilles, 50 African students clashed with police outside the Belgian Consulate. Seventeen were detained. In New Delhi the ruling Indian Congress Party called for an imperial inquiry into Mr Lumumba’s “brutal murder.” India’s Defence Minister, Mr V. K. Krishna Menon, said that failure of the United Nations in the Congo would not only mean the ignominious withdrawal of the United Nations troops, but also the collapse of the world organisation itself. This would possibly give an excuse to the big Powers to intervene in the Congo, leading perhaps to another Korea. In Johannesburg white refugees from the Congo put up poster** reading "to bell with Lumumba and his friends the Communists” outside the new Clare township city hall while non-whites were protesting against his murder. The counter-protest was called by the Belgian Refugees’ Association, comprising whites of many nationalities who fled the Congo after post-independence riots. Tempers flared and there were heated exchanges outside the hall when a group of Indians began distributing pamphlets bearing pictures of Mr Lumumba. Inside the ball, the Congress Alliance, representing several non-white organisations, passed a resolution demanding the dismissal of Mr Hammarskjold as SecretaryGeneral otf the United Nations.