“REDS” OH THE RUN

Evening Star, Issue 20972, 10 December 1931, Page 11

“REDS” OH THE RUN

HUNTED RELENTLESSLY IN AUSTRALIA EXCITING SCENES AT WOLLONGONG Fras* Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. SYDNEY, December 9. (Received December 10, at 1.30 a.m.) Since raids were commenced upon Communists at Bourkc recently Communists all over the State have been hunted relentlessly, and the police in every instance have saved thorn from rough handling. There were exciting scenes to-day at Wollongong, a coal mining centre, where it is suspected that the “ Rods ” have many sympathisers. Lawrence Sharkey, a Communist Senate candidate, had just begun an address at an open-air meeting opposite the Soldiers’ Memorial Hall when ho was dislodged from his soapbox and sent sprawling to the ground. His Communist friends rushed to his aid armed with pieces of iron pipe and similar weapons, but they were unable to use them owing to the sudden onslaught of hundreds of members of the New Guard and returned soldiers, who were carefully organised and had the Communists on tho run before they were able to strike a blow. The police and others followed, and the police, fearing that the Communists would be lynched, arrested eight of them for their own safety. The members of tho New Guard returned to the Communists’ hall, sang ‘ Rule Britannia,’ burned a red flag and a quantity of Communist literature, and would have wrecked the building but for the police intervening. A similar gathering at Lane Cove, a suburb, received milder treatment, the Communists on this occasion being forced to accept police protection to tho trams.