500 Join C.N.D. March

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30107, 16 April 1963, Page 10

500 Join C.N.D. March

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, April 15. A four-day march by supporters of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament ended at Parliament Buildings this afternoon. Nearly 500 marchers were met by about 100 persons who listened to speeches and resolutions. A police party of sex-en detailed for duty in Parliament grounds had little to do. There was no disorder and the only threat of it came when a group of students, who said they came from Lincoln and Massey Colleges, hoisted banners carrying hostile slogans. Their banners said: “Bomb the banners." “We encourage fall-out” and “We revel in radiation.” There were a few altercations between supporters of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the “rebel” group, which numbered about 12.

A policeman moved towards the group and they turned their banners so that they could not be seen by the majority of the crowd. “We are not representing anyone but . ourselves." said one of the group. “We are not here to create a disturbance,” said another. The marchers were welcomed by Mr H. Einhorn, chairman of the Wellington branch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, who read a long list of organisations. including many trade unions, which supported the campaign to press the Government to work for an extension of the nuclear-free Antarctic to the whole of the Southern Hemisphere.

The president of the Methodist Conference, the Rev. J B. Thornley, commended the marchers for the witness that they made this Easter. “You have done something for democracy.” he said. “Democracy does not mean accepting, tilings as they are. It means accepting responsibility and this is what you have been doing.” Mr Thornley said Christians rejoiced at Easter, but nuclear

weapons were a contradiction of the family character of mankind. "Use of nuclear weapons would be nothing less than mass murder of members of the human family.” he said. Mrs Mary Woodward, mother of four children, told the gathering: “We must get out of S.E.A.T.O. and A.N.Z.U.S.. which tie us to the nuclear deterrent.” The demonstration lasted about half an hour While it was going on, the Legislative Department's sole attendant in the buildings was sitting in his room at the Bowen street entrance of the buildings All other entrances to the buildings were locked, which is the usual procedure on a public holiday. The marchers represented a wide age-range, br* the majority were about 20. Yesterday two 70-year-old women marched from Porirua to Johnsonville. The marchers include a Tauranga family of parents and six young children. Preceding the marchers were scouts collecting signatures for a petition seeking a nuclear-free zone in the Southern Hemisphere.