Rival Political Groups Clash In Street Fights

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 September 1947, Page 6

Rival Political Groups Clash In Street Fights

(Recd. 11.45 a.m.) LONDON, August ,31. Street fighting with knuckledusters and belt buckles broke out during meetings of antifascists and the British League of ex-Servicemen at Hackney tonight. Specially reinforced squads of police broke up the clashes and arrested eight persons. Two civilians and one policeman were slightly injured. One youth was sent to hospital with a head injury.

The league meeting had been in progress 15 minutes when a melee began. The atmosphere became dangerous and the police dispersed the meeting. Swarms of youths, singing the “Horst Wessel” song and shouting for Mosley, then marched with linked arms on a nearby anti-Fascist meeting. This meeting had attracted a great crowd whom the police with drawn batons tried to keep moving. As the marchers approached singing and shouting, the police formed a cordon and held them back, while their opponents shouted: “Down with the Fascists.” The pplice kept most of the antagonists separated until the antiFascist meeting ended. An observer commented: “This was the worst clash yet.” A bombed church near the centre of the trouble bore a placard in large letters, “Love Thy Neighbour.