STUDENTS BURN UNION JACK

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31143, 20 August 1966, Page 1

STUDENTS BURN UNION JACK

Demonstration As Governor Arrives

A woman university student carrying a burning Union Jack was arrested as the Governor-General (Sir Bernard Fergusson) arrived with Lady Fergusson to open the new science buildings of the University of Canterbury at Ham yesterday afternoon.

While the ceremony was in progress inside, other young people placed pamphlets in or on cars parked near Ham road.

These had a footnote: “This is a Republican publication”. The name of the society in Christchurch which replaced the Committee Opposing Royal J ours is the Republican Association.

Police with dogs, called from town, then cleared the driveway by which the Gov-ernor-General’s party was to leave. There were no other incidents, and the demonstrating group apparently did not utter a word throughout. As the Governor-General and Lady Fergusson stepped from their car, the woman, an arts student, aged 27,

i wearing spectacles and J dressed in a charcoal duffel coat, appeared on the conI course outside the lecture theatre block with a Union Jack on a pole, dipped to i her right, burning brightly along its lower edge. Inspector R. P. Silk seized the flag and had some difficulty in stamping out the flames, as the flag, four feet by three feet, had apparently been soaked in inflammable I liquid. I The woman was arrested , on a charge of disorderly be- . haviour. Inspector Silk held

the woman by the arm as he led her to a police car in which she was taken away. The woman was released on bail by the police. She will appear in the Magistrate’s Court on Monday. The official party, facing the building, apparently did not notice the disturbance. All guests were inside the building, but some saw the incident from first-floor windows. While the ceremony inside was in progress the distribu tion of the pamphlets was in progress. Police reinforcements and dogs were called up. The police were seeking witnesses to identify a young man who set fire to the flag before the woman student carried it on to the concourse.

Mr Bruce Jesson, a law student who is secretary of the Republican Association, was later questioned by police in a street near ‘he university. He said he did not wish to answer questions about the incident. Mr Jesson, on a motorcycle, had been followed by a police car. His name was taken because, it is alleged, he drove through a compulsory stop. Two women who saw the flag-burning were questioned by the police. Apart from them there were few persons on the concourse, as the university is closed for the vacation. The pamphlet said in part: “The guts of our complaint is that honouring the Gov-ernor-General in this way is aggravating the institutionalised insult of a British head of state.” The only official university comment on the incident was one word from the Chancellor (the Rt. Rev. A. K. Warren). “Shocking,” he said.