EXCITEMENT AT EUSTON

Evening Post, Volume CCXV, Issue 13, 17 January 1938, Page 9

EXCITEMENT AT EUSTON

MR. DE VALERA'S ARRIVAL

ESCAPE BY RUSE

(United Tress Association—Hy 'Electric Tclcgrnpli-"-Coi>y right.)

LONDON, January 16.

Three thousand excited Irish girls and men, with deafening cheers, broke through the police cordons and leapt the barriers as the Irish mail train bringing Mr. de Valera, president of the Irish Free State executive, drew into the platform at Euston station.

The Dominions Secretary, Mr. Malcolm MacDonald, Mr. Humphrey Davies, the Prime Minister's secretary, and Mr. Dulanty, High Commissioner for the Irish Free State, who were waiting in a reserved area, advanced to receive Mr. de Valera. He stepped out of the carriage smilingly, but hardly had Mr. MacDonald shaken hands when the crowd, waving the Eire tricolour and shouting, "All or nothing! We want the republic!" tumultuoitsly swept down the platform, knocking down several men and women passengers and dispersing the police, who were desperately struggling with linked arms to maintain a cordon about the arrivals.

Mr. de Valera speedily stepped back into the train. Mr. MacDonald and those with him followed and slammed the door, about which the crowd surged, hysterically singing the Eire national anthem and other Irish songs. The police vainly appealed to the crowd to clear a pathway to the waiting motou-cars.

Meanwhile the blinds along the length of the train, extending nearly a quarter of a mile* were pulled down. The crowd did not suspect this ruse, and Mr. de Valera and his party were enabled to walk through the train, alighting at the far end of the station, from where they were driven off after an imprisonment of more than half an hour.

Crowds waited at the station for more than an hour, believing Mr. de Valera was still on the train. Meanwhile they continued their demonstration.