POLICE USE FORCE ON DEMONSTRATORS

Press, Volume C, Issue 29480, 5 April 1961, Page 8

POLICE USE FORCE ON DEMONSTRATORS

Anti-Bomb Marchers Hold Giant Rally LONDON, April 3. Hundreds of police had to use strong-arm methods to break up anti-H-Bomb demonstrations in London tonight. The main trouble spot was the Saville Row police station, where about 300 demonstrators tried to get their arrested leaders released. Police told them to leave the area but the yelling demonstrators squatted on the pavements and street. Police charged them and dragged them teet-first away from the station.

"Hie trouble started after a 25,000-strong "ban-the-bomb” rally broke up in Trafalgar square after an Eastern march on London. 4 Five hundred demonstrators marched on the American Embassy. They were met by police standing shoulder-to-shoulder to keep them from getting into the building. A melee broke out and several were arrested. Another group later marched on the Soviet Embassy but they found the gates to the private road where the embassy is situated locked. Thirty-one demonstrators were arrested altogether. Most of the demonstrators had marched more than 50 miles since Friday in two wind - swept, rain - soaked columns. Thousands more cheered the bedraggled columns as they trudged footsore into the centre of the city. The marchers had trekked from the Atomic Weapons Research Station at Aldermaston, Berkshire, and the United St-tes Air Force Base at Wethersfield, Essex. March On Embassy After the Trafalgar Square rally about 500 demonstrators formed up and marched on the American Embassy. led by a Scottish piper. After police had restored order they squatted on the pavements. Police ringed the squatters. All roads leading to the Square were heavily lined with more police. Among the demonstrators were a group beneath the banner “Deutschland.” After about an hour the demonstrators moved off. Many of them formed into two groups, one under the “Deutschland” banner. The German group marched off towards the Soviet Embassy, closely followed by a busload of police. The others made their way to the Savile Row police station, to which those arrested in Grosvenor Square h.-.d been taken. One of the leaders of the column which marched on Trafalgar square from Wethersfield was Jacquetta Hawkes, the wife of novelist, J. B. Priestley. Crowd Estimates There were tremendous differences in the estimates of the crowd in Trafalgar square. Canon John Collins, who

led the marchers. said : that there were about 150,000.: but police put the figure at 25.000. Last year there were 100,000 including 40,000 marchers. Bleak, rainy weather kept ; thousands of spectators away : today. Canon Collins, Precentor of i St. Paul’s Cathedral, told the i crowd that the Easter march had become "the greatest mass demonstration Britain ■ has known in this century. “It has now become the best - known symbol of : humanity’s revolt against the < bomb,” he said. Among his audience were men. women, and children : who had marched beneath i the banners of more than

20 countries, with 500 Germans the largest visiting contingent. Russell Speaks A great cheer greeted 88-year-old Earl Russell (Bertrand Russell, the philosopher) when he said: “I advocate non-violent disobedience. We stand together for sanity in a world gone mad. “We hope we may convert the governments before it is too late. But as yet the danger of complete disaster remains deadly and imminent.” Canon Collins said later that the demonstration outside the American Embassy did not have the backing of the march organisers.