SUICIDE IN VIETNAM WAR PROTEST

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30899, 4 November 1965, Page 17

SUICIDE IN VIETNAM WAR PROTEST

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) WASHINGTON, Nov. 3. A shocked crowd late yesterday watched a pacifist Quaker burn to death outside the Pentagon building in Washington after he had doused himself with kerosene and set fire to his clothing.

The man, Norman Morrison, aged 31, the father of three children, was protesting against American military involvement

in the Vietnam war. Morrison had been dutching his year-old baby daughter Emily as he burned, but dropped the child before he was engulfed. The girl was unharmed.

Shocked throngs of military

officers, secretaries and civilian officials from the United States Defence headquarters in the Pentagon heard him shout. Statement Made But nobody was sure of his exact motive until his widow issued a statement hours later. “Norman Morrison has given his life today to express his concern over the great loss of life and human suf-

fering caused by the war in Vietnam. “He was protesting our Government’s deep military involvement in this war. "He felt that all citizens must speak their convictions about our country's action," she said. The self-immolation—rem-iniscent of the actions of Buddhist monks in Vietnam—occurred at dusk as thousands of the Pentagon's workers and military men were streaming out of the building. “Drop the baby.” they screamed, and he did. Many scaled a concrete abutment on which Morrison had been standing. They beat out the flames with their coats, but it was too late. He was dead on arrival at a nearby Army dispensary.

Morrison was an official of a Quaker organisation. The sect, formally known as the Society of Friends, opposes war or violence in any form.