WINDOW SMASHING

Grey River Argus, 17 May 1932, Page 5

WINDOW SMASHING

COMMUNISTS BLAMED. MAGISTRATE’S VERSION OF LAW. (Per Press Association, WELLINGTON, May 16. Before announcing the sentences on the Wellington rioters, Magistrate Page briefly reviewed the recent happenings, adding: “My opinion is that this orgy of window-breaking and looting was not the work of the genuine unemployed, but of a small band led by members of the organisation of Communists operating in our midst, whose doctrine appears to bo to foster mob violence and revolutionary disorder As to the punishment to be imposed, there can be only one answer. Those who chose to ally themselves with forces of disorder need not expect lenient treatment in this Court. By our laws, if several people form a common intention to prosecute any unlawful purpose, as. for example, breaking shop windows, stealing goods therefrom, each of them is a party to every Offence committed by any of them, in the prosecution of such common purpose. ’ ’