batons drawn

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 65, 10 December 1930, Page 12

batons drawn

Unemployed and Mayor PROVOCATIVE GRIN Mr. Archer Calls on Police LEADER EJECTED Dominion Special Service. Christchurch, December 9. “I’m not going to have you sitting there grinning at me,” said the Mayor, the Kev. J. K. Archer, to Mr. A. F. Marshall at a gathering of the unemployed in the City Council Chambers today. “Police, put that man out.” There were shouts of protest from the men as the police advanced, and it looked as if there were going to be a fight.

Mr. Marshall was seized round the neck by a plain-clothes constable and ejected from the room. A sergeant of police produced a truncheon, and in the scuffle one man went down.

“There’s not going to be any funny business to-day,” said the sergeant. “If you start anything you’ll regret it.”

In a minute or two peace was established.

Outside in the street after the meeting Mr. Marshall got up to speak and was hustled down by the police amid angry booing. The trouble developed as a result of Mr. Marshall and some of his followers holding the Mayor up to ridicule. These men, about 50 in number, marched up the steps into the council chambers with their banners unfurled, and when inside demanded to see the Mayor. When the Mayor arrived Mr. Marshall grinned at him in a provocative manner, and on being told to leave the chamber he refused to move.

The police, on the Mayor’s request, then took a hand. Several of Mr. Marshall’s mates joined in the melee, and the situation became very ugly for a while. A section of the crowd rushed at the police and endeavoured to prevent them from taking Mr. Marshall away. So menacing did they become that it was found necessary for the police to draw their batons and threaten to use them. One man made a dash at the sergeant and tried to bring him down, and he was only quietened when the sergeant used his baton on him. When the crowd saw that the police were prepared to meet force with force some degree of order was restored. Mr. Marshall, still struggling fiercely, was drawn clear of the rest of the men and taken downstairs. ’On being released in the street he walked away quietly and did not return until about half an hour later. A number of the men tried to follow Mr. Marshall out of the chamber, but the police forced them back, and once their leader was out of the way they carried on very quietly and made a number of representations to the Mayor in a respectful manner. At the conclusion of the interview with the Mayor the police took the names of the banner-bearers and made an inspection of the banners. The men were warned that if the banners were carried in the streets without permission having been obtained they would be prosecuted. Standing on the bar of a bicycle Mr. Marshall addressed the gathering. He had not completed more than two sentences before four or five constables advanced upon him. They drove the speaker in front of them to the outskirts of the crowd, many of the rest of the gathering “booing” the policemen. Finally Mr. Marshall and others unfurled the banners and marched north along Manchester Street.