Beatniks Ousted

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32010, 10 June 1969, Page 17

Beatniks Ousted

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) LONDON, June 9. Things have come to a head between the Beatniks and the farmers of Cornwall. In an early-morning mission yesterday, three farmers raided the makeshift shelters of about 40 beatniks on moorland above the cliffs of St Ives, and tore apart their stone-and-timber shacks and burned them. Then they warned other beatniks: “We shall not be so gentlemanly next time.” Their action, the “Daily Telegraph” reports today, is one more indication of the worsening relations between the town of St Ives and unwelcome immigrants. Hundreds of residents and holiday-makers have signed a petition asking the Minister of Housing and Local Government to allow St Ives to expand its powers under the Vagrancy Act. One of the farmers who • took part in yesterday’s raid, . Mr Michael Luke, said the ■ beatniks concerned had brok- ■ en down fences and hedges , ; and left farm gates open.

“Judging from the number of outer leaves lying about, I think they had been lying on beds made of my cabbages,” he said. Another farmer, Mr William Carbines, claimed that the beatniks often lay on the footpaths, forcing people to walk round them. A senior police officer said: ‘The three farmers had complained to us. They said they were going to move the beatniks on, and four constables went along with them to ensure that there was no violence. The beatniks moved out quite peaceably.”