"BAN THE BOMB”

Press, Volume C, Issue 29520, 23 May 1961, Page 8

"BAN THE BOMB”

Incident At Holy Loch

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, May 21. “Ban-the-bomb” demonstrators who tried to board the United States Navy’s Polaris submarine depot ship, Proteus, in Holy Loch. Scotland. were repelled with fire hoses today. On shore, hundreds of Whitsun holidaymakers watched the spectacle.

The demonstrators paddled out to Proteus in canoes, and played cat-and-mouse with police launches trying to head them off.

Frogmen dived into the loch and latched on to some of the canoes. They were towed to the launches, where police arrested the occupants. One demonstrator shinned up an anchor chain and tied an anti-Polaris flag on the links. He slid back down into the waiting arms of police. Another started to climb the bulwark; but was blasted off with a fire hose.

At one stage there were about 50 boats circling Proteus.

Meanwhile, on shore, about a thousand demonstrators marched on the wharf used to land Proteus boats, hoping to occupy it They found their way barred by wire netting and iron railings, so they sat down in the road. Police ran a shuttle service of vans to a nearby police station after making arrests.

Oven Fire,—An oven fire at 12 Liverton crescent, the property of Mr H. van Heltan, was extinguished without damage at 8.11 p.m. yesterday by one unit from the St Albans Are station.