Bishop Allows Placards

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31195, 20 October 1966, Page 1

Bishop Allows Placards

Placards of protest held by members of the Christchurch Joint Council on Vietnam were displayed in the Cathedral grounds at lunch-time yesterday in spite of a refusal by the Christchurch City Council of permission for a silent vigil outside the Cathedral.

On Monday the City Council declined the Vietnam council’s application to hold the vigil outside the Cathedral but granted permission for it to be held in Latimer square.

At noon yesterday the protesters, with their placards bearing such slogans as “Geneva, Not Manila,” "Support U Thant’s Stand” and “Men of Goodwill Work for Peace in Suffering Vietnam,” assembled in Latimer square. A telephone call was made to the Bishop of Christchurch (the Rt. Rev. W. A. Pyatt), who gave the protesters permission to hold their silent vigil within the Cathedral grounds, facing Cathedral square, provided the placards were in good taste and were not anti-Christian. Bishop Pyatt said that if the placards emphasised peace or prayers for peace he had no objection to the vigil being held in the grounds of the Cathedral. The assistant Town Clerk (Mr M. B. Hayes) said that when the City Council declined the application on Monday evening it did not give its reason. “To me it seemed that this vigil might be a larger one than others held in the past to which the council had granted permission for the use of the footpath outside the Cathedral,” he said. “It could be that the council felt Latimer square was better suited for the role of a local Hyde Park,” said Mr Hayes. At one stage before Bishop

Pyatt gave his permission several of the Vietnam protesters were prepared to defy the City Council's ruling and march to Cathedral square. Police with a car waited in Cathedral square for some time after the protesting group took its stand.