MAKING DOUKHOBORS BEHAVE

Evening Star, Issue 21116, 31 May 1932, Page 12

MAKING DOUKHOBORS BEHAVE

S9NS AND DAUGHTERS OF FREEDOM ITCHING POWDER EFFECTIVE Nelson (Canada) Gaol to-day is filled to overflowing. On May 1 117 men and women, allegedly Sons and Daughters of Freedom, cast aside their garments, and staged a nude parade. This led to a fight of about three-quarters of an hour with eighteen provincial police officers, and the freedom of the paraders ended when they were loaded into motor trucks and cars and packed in the gaol. The parade is reported to have been headed by’ Pete Malotf and “ Old Bottlenose,” a woman fanatic. The parade, which began at Thrums, sixteen miles from Nelson, was partly a protest against the expulsion of Sons of Freedom from the Doukhobor communities by the orthodox leaders. Some of the freedom-loving folk are said to have Communist leanings, too, and it is possible that May Day struck them as a suitable time for their clothesless celebratoin. Apart from this, however, parading in the nude is an old custom among the Sons of Freedom. POLICE READY; ACTED PROMPTLY.

Expecting trouble, Inspector Forbes Cruickshank and Staff-sergeant Stephenson stationed their provincial officers at Shore Acres, about five miles from Thrums. A motor cycle officer was sent along the highway. He ran into the nude parade and summoned the officers. The police gave some fifty nude paraders twenty minutes to dress or get off the highway, but they paid no heed. ... , . The police quickly closed in on tnc parade. The marchers fought hard and turned streams of water on the police. The latter countered by attacking with lengths of garden hose and liberal quantities of itching powder sprinkled on naked bodies of men and women, young and old. WOMEN WERE VERY VICIOUS. This led to a general disrobing byothers and a wave of resistance which found officers sometimes beating back three and four nude Doukhobors. The women were particularly vicious. As the itch powder was not fully effective in the high wind that prevailed, the Doukhobors started an offensive by using water from a garden hose. Several officers were drenched before the pipe line was disconnected by police. As fast as the officers grabbed a nudist he was set upon by one, two, or three more. One nude woman stepped backwards and fell into a glass hothouse. Another received a severe gash on the forehead and is at present in hospital. She “forgave’’ the police, “ for they did not know what they did.’ Police uniforms were clutched, and the paraders used a vile-smelling liquid on Staff-sergeant Stephenson, who will be ordering a new uniform. When the fight was over the police had eighty-four men and thirty-three women cornered in an orchard. Manyof them were completely devoid of clothing, and all were in various stages of undress. Application of the itching powder to bare skins caused the unfortunate paraders to scratch, and their bodies showed large red blotches. POSSIBLE PENALTY IS THREE YEARS. I On Saturday a parade in the nude I was held at the same spot, and passing motorists were pelted with rocks by the fanatics. Police went to the scene, but all was quiet upon their arrival. ' Under an amendment to the criminal code brought down last year by the | dominion Government, persons guilty of I parading in the nude are liable to , three years in prison. I The parades followed a series of at- I tacks on property in the neighbour- | hood of Doukhobor settlements, for I ■ which members of the Sons of Freedom j ! sect atm blamed. Attempts have been ! made to burn schools, an irrigation pipe : was .shattered by a bomb, railways wore tampered with, and a switch was blown up by a bomb just after a train passed over it. i