RED FLAGS

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 May 1931, Page 12

RED FLAGS

PUBLICLY BURNT. LAUNCESTON, April 26. Red flags which were hoisted at the dwellings of two Communist leaders in William Street on Anzac Day were, torn down' by a number of former soldiers, members of the volunteer forces, and citizens, who tied the flags to a tree and publicly burnt them at York Park, where an Anzac sports meeting was being held. The returned soldiers had been incensed by disparaging remarks made by Communist leaders at a street meeting, > and the matter came to a climax when it was reported that seditious reading matter was being displayed in a window in William Street, and that Red flags were being two houses. A meeting was held at Anzac Hostel after the commemoration ceremony,

and 70 men immediately afterwards marched to William Street. A young volunteer climbed a pole to the roof of the verandah of one of the houses to tear down the flag. He was met by the occupier and a hand to hand combat followed. The occupier’s wife handed a hammer to her husband, but it was wrenched from him by another member of the returned soldiers’ party, who had climbed to the roof. The Communist was overpowered and pushed through the window through which he had come. The flags were removed amid the singing of the National Anthem and cheers. A notice outside one of the houses stated that the qccupant had served at the war, but the result had been “no work, no rent, no home.”