Eviction Government Responsibility

Evening Star, Issue 25895, 12 September 1946, Page 7

Eviction Government Responsibility

(Ministry of Works officials served a writ against Mr Hanley Henderson. Other squatters selected for the service of writs will appear before the judge on September 17. Mr Henderson said that he and five other squatters named in the writ would appear in the court, but “ we will not move even if an eviction order is made.” Cr Bill Garratt, Communist member of the Westminster Council, declared that the responsibility for turning out the squatters who had taken possession of Bedford House would be entirely the Government's. He added that the squatters would not lift a finger to help the officials. If they wanted

the squatters to get. out the officials would have to carry women and children into the streets. After the writ was served on Mr Henderson, Cr Garratrt said: “ The state of siege is now ended. The doors will be unbarred.” About a dozen men and women squatters entered Abbey Lodge, a large block of flats in Regents Park to-day. Mr Aneurin Bevan has refused for the second.time to see the Communist M.P., Mr P. Piratin, on the ground that the matter is now one for legal authority. A crowd waiting outside the court at Falkirk, Stirlingshire, cheered three squatters who were fined 5s for trespass.