BLACKS AND REDS

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 October 1936, Page 7

BLACKS AND REDS

ARRESTS IN LONDON POLICE KEPT BUSY [BY CABLE—PBESS ASSN. —COPYBIGHT.] LONDON. October 4. Both Communists and Fascists held meetings in the East End to-night. They were strongly guarded by police. Arrests made during the day for obstruction and assault totalled 84. A statement issued by Scotland Yard said: “Largely because it was one of the finest days of the year, many people assembled, including women and children. Disorder broke out, and the procession was banned to prevent further breaches of the peace.” A statement issued by the Communist Party says: “The mass action of the working people exposed the pro-Fascist attitude of the Home Office and the police, who sought to the last moment to enable Sir 'Oswald Mosley to march. They are responsible for the baton' charges and the arrests.”

Hospitals treated 20 persons for bruises, including two- girls, who were trodden down, and two’Fascists. The police made many baton charges. The most serious clash occurred in Cable Street, where the crowd, thinking that the Fascists would pass that way, took a lorry from •it builder’s yard, and started building a barricade. The police charged a dozen times, and received a shower of bricks and stones.

MEETING CANCELLED

(Rec. October G, 2 p.m.)

LONDON, October 5.

Following a communication with the police, a Fascist meeting at Bow’, East London, was cancelled a few minutes before the start. The Fascists marched to another meeting at Bethnal Green.

LABOUR RESOLUTION

(Recd. Oct. G, 11.30 a.m.).

LONDON, October 5. •

The Labour Conference at Edinburgh carried a resolution deploring yesterday’s events in the East End, and condemning the Government for not. banning the Fascist march, and demanding the prohibition of political uniforms and militarised politics. The conference supported non-inter-vention in Spain, by a huge majority.

PRESS PRAISE POLICE

RUGBY, October 5.

On connection with the Fascist march in London, altogether some SO persons were arrested, and are being charged with obstructing the police.. Most newspapers praise the police for their handling of a dangerous situation. “The Times,” in a leading article, headed “A Public Nuisance,” says: This sort of hooliganism must bo clearly ended. The activities, of both Fascists and Communists in this country seem to most people to he a tedious and a. rather pitiable burlesque, but the law rightly allows them, like’ other people, to express their opinions, and testify' their beliefs by methods of procession and public meetings. What can be done, and what was done yesterday, is for the police to decide at the time on every occasion, whether the procession or meeting is likely to provoke a breach of the peace and to decide accordingly whether it is to be held or not. Decision can be taken without, any regard to relative merits of the Fascists and Communists. To most people there does not seem much to choose between them as dangers to the public order.

FRENCH COMMUNISTS.

PARIS, October 4

Disturbances occurred to-day in the neighbourhood of the Parc des Princes; where 3000 Communists es--tablished themselves in the early morning to prevent the seizure of the stadium by the Social Party. The police barricaded the area. Army reconnaissance aeroplanes watched the crowds assembling and directed the police by’ wireless to the danger points, where a dozen columns of the Social Party were advancing, necessitating numerous charges. Members of the Social Party smashed windows and overturned taxis. Eight police and 200 demonstrators were injured. The police in the afternoon had sufficiently dispersed the demonstrators to enable 40,000 Communists to assemble at a Communist meeting, which passed a resolution demanding in view of the alleged Italian . and German help for the Spanish insuigents, the raising of the ban on the export of arms io Spain.

ONLY ELEVEN PROSECUTED.

(Received October 6,2 p.m.) PARIS, October 5

Only eleven of the 1500 arrested in connection with Sunday’s disturbances are to be charged.

VATICAN EXHIBITS.

(Received October G, 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, October 5

The “Morning Post’s” Rome correspondent describes a secret exhibition at the Vatican, where selected persons are shown proofs of Communist propaganda, collected throughout the world, revealing the Church’s unsleeping vigilance against its most dangerous enemy.

The first impression, on passing the heavily-curtained doorway, is of entrance into Moscow’s Ministry of Propaganda. A life-like effigy of Lenin, placed on a red-sheeted rostrum, points fiercely to the rooms containing proofs of his policy for exterminating existing society and uprooting including a copious display of open and clandestine periodicals, circulating in both hemispheres. The . display reveals the far-flung coordination of Moscow, ‘disclosing the methods of approaching different national mentalities. Is also shows* the Russian genius for psychology, and opportunism in exploiting local grievances. The recent intensification of propaganda in Spain is most notable.