N.S.W. NEW GUARD

Grey River Argus, 19 February 1932, Page 5

N.S.W. NEW GUARD

drilling at night Public Apprehension MAY TRY TO KIDNAP PREMIER. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn.) (Received February 18 at 11.10 pan.) SYDNEY, February 18. There is exceptional activity among the members of the New Guard. This is causing considerable interest. There are night meetings, mobilisation, drill rehearsals, and secret manoeuvres along military lines, held in various suburbs. These are provoking a hot protest from the Labour press. There is even talk of kidnapping the Premier. Mr Lang. The unexpected arrival of the police last night checkmated a big gathering of two thousand New Guardsmen at Fairfield, an outer suburb. Whatever their plans were, they were not disclosed, so the police contented themselves with booking the numbers of the plate from the largo fleet of motor cars in which the mar. present travelled to their rendezvous.

There is a general feeling in the community that the New Guardsmen anticipate some form of trouble shortly, and that it may synchronise with the opening of the Harbour Bridge, in which they arc desirous that the Premier, Mr Lang, should not participate.

The unrest in the community may bo gauged from a. speech made at Goulburn by Mr J. Ownes, leader of an unemployed deputation to the Minister of Agriculture, seeking further food relief. Mr Ownes said that unless something were done in the next throe months, there would be one of the gravest upheavals in tho Commonwealth.

The Minister, Mr Tully, replied that the Government regarded the issue food relief as an insurance against revolution.