PACIFIST SPEAKERS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20140, 9 January 1940, Page 9

PACIFIST SPEAKERS

OBSTRUCTING POLICE PAIR FINED BY COURT (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. Two men who were arrested on the Auckland Domain yesterday after the centennial combined thanksgiving service, Halford Graham Lyttle, aged 30 years, an electrician, and Archibald Charles Barrington, aged 34, a clerk, both of Wellington, were charged in the Police Court to-day with obstructing the police in the lawful execution of their duty. Conducting their own cases, the accused pleaded not guilty. The police witnesses said thay saw both men in the centre of a crowd of between 200 and 300 persons. Barrington was addressing the crowd from a box.

The police witnesses said that the crowd was hostile and there were cries of : “Take them away. He’s a friend of Hitler.”

As there was every appearance of an ugly demonstration and as jeers were being hurled at the men, both men were asked to leave. They refused.

They were told they would be arrested for obstruction if they did not comply. They again refused. Barrington was pushed off the box and a sergeant of police said in evidence that, in the interests of the accused, it was deemed advisable to arrest them.

The crowd was composed principally of women, but included soldiers and sailors. One woman was stopped from striking the accused with an umbrella. Both the accused in evidence denied that there was hostility by the crowd. They admitted having addressed meetings in other places, including Stratford, Wanganui, and Hamilton. Barrington said that he was a member of the Christian Pacifist Society and for long had been working in the interests of world peace. The magistrate, Mr. W. R. McKean, said .it was obvious that the police took action because they apprehended that, the crowd being hostile, there would be trouble and they had to consider the safety of the men themselves.

He fined Lyttle £1 and Barrington £2.