P.Y.M. Burns Cross

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32322, 13 June 1970, Page 12

P.Y.M. Burns Cross

Members of the Christchurch branch of the Progressive Youth Movement, dressed in Ku Klux Klan caps burnt a cross by the Citizens’ War Memorial in Cathedral Square last evening. The group was protesting against the Rugby tour of South Africa. While the cross was burning one member of the group was “hanged” from a mock-scaffold. On his chest he had a placard: “I am a South African black,” and above his head another sign: “Hiss the villain.” The P.Y.M. assembled outside the Cathedral shortly

after 8 p.m. They then marched round the Square carrying banners, which included: “Your apathy condones their apartheid” and the first verse of God Defend New Zealand. A small football brought by one of the members was picked up by a passer-by, who disappeared into Warners Tavern. The ball was later retrieved. Three members of the group who were wearing Klan hats had chest placards with the inscriptions: N.Z. government; S.A. government and N.Z.R.F.U. Two policemen walked over to the group shortly after the cross stopped burning, and then moved away.

Some late-night shoppers going through the Square stopped for a few minutes, and then went without much comment: However a group of -Maori teen-agers was unimpressed. “The Maoris have been invited to South Africa and that lot won’t stop us,” one said.