Students Boo Mr Shinwell : Noisy Meeting At Oxford

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 October 1948, Page 6

Students Boo Mr Shinwell : Noisy Meeting At Oxford

LONDON, October 11.

A number of undergraduates booed and catcalled, and one group sang, “We don’t want to join the army, We don’t want to go to war,” when the Secretary of State for War (Mr E. Shin well) left the Oxford University gymnasium after delivering a speech last night. Extra policemen who were called out to control the unruly crowd kept back rowdy students as Mr Shinwell, escorted by the senior proctor, walked from the hall to his car.

Continued Interruptions

Undergraduates in the hall continually interrupted Mr Shinwell’s speech. Those barred from entering after the doors were shut on the packed hall climber on to the roof, dislodging a large number of tiles, and called out through the skylights. University proctors had to be called to help the police to deal with the situation.

Mr Shinwell alleged that Mr Churchill’s speech to the Conservative conference at Llandudno was full of half truths, inaccuracies, insinuations, and downright lies. He bitterly attacked Mr Churchill. He said Mr Churchill was a danger to peace and wanted another war.

Referring to Mr Churchill’s comments oh the Government, Mr Shinwell said: “If Churchill is to be allowed to say things about us amid tumultous applause of pygmies surrounding him I am not standing for it.”

Attack On Churchill

“Mr Churchill’s speech' at Llandudno did deadly harm and can only be regarded as a national and international calamity,” said the Minister of Health (Mr Aneurin Bevan) in a speech. . “The reason why the speech is so singularly unfortunate is because he ventured to make observations about the international situation which might give rise to the gravest possible misunderstandings,” said Mr Bevan. “Mr Churchill knows how difficult the international situation is. It is absolutely essential that people should speak soberly and carefully arid weigh the consequences of what they say, because we don’t desire to heighten the tension or make conciliation and understanding more difficult. “Mr Churchill is one of the most reckless speakers in British political history. The Russians recognise him as the leader of the reactionary forces which sold European peace in 1933 and connived at Hitler’s rise to power.” Mr K. Zilliacus, M.P., said that Mr Churchill’s speech drove home the grim fact that the Conservatives wanted, a third world war., *

The Moscow radio reported Mr Churchill’s speech at Llandudno in cne sentence, saying that it was “full, of malicious anti-Soviet, attacks.”