NOTICE TO QUIT

Grey River Argus, 13 September 1946, Page 5

NOTICE TO QUIT

FOR SQUATTOCRACY y Government Invokes Law ■ LONDON, September 12. About a dozen men and women squatters entered Abbey Lodge, a large block of flats in Regents Park to-day. Police cars last night toured all streets within five miles of Westminster on watch for would-be squatters trekking .towards empty houses. The police had been ordered to try to make the squatters’ see reason. Ministry of Works officials served a writ against Mr Henderson, secretary of the squatters’ committee, and other squatters selected for the service of the writ, to appear before a judge on September 17. Henderson said that he and the five other squatters’ named in the writ would appeal 1 in court, but would “not move, even if an.eviction order were made”. After the writ had been served on Henderson, Cr. “Bill” Carratt, a Communist member of Westminster' Council, declared: The state of siege has now ended. The doors will be unbarred. He had earlier said that the responsibility for turning out the squatters who had taken possession of Bedford House would be entirely the Government’s. The squatters would not lift a finger to help the officials. If they wanted the squatters to get out, the officials would have to carry the women and children into the streets. The Minister of Health, Mr Aneurin Bevan, has refused for a second time to see a Communist member of the House of Commons, Mr Piratin, on the, ground that the matter is now one for legal authority. Government Statement TAKES “VERY SERIOUS” VIEW COMMUNISTS THE INSTIGATORS LONDON, September 11. The Government has issued from No. 10, Downing Street, a statement saying: “The Government takes a very serious view of the forcible seizure and occupation by unauthorised persons of private premises in London, especially those required for housing and other public purposes. This action has been instigated and organised by the Communist Party, and must result in hindering, rather than helping, the arrangements for the orderly re-housing of those in need of accommodation. The Government has been advised that both the civil and criminal law have been violated. “Unless steps are taken to check lawless measures' of this sort, the rights of ordinary law-abiding citizens will be endangered and anarchy may result. It is the duty of the police to take every step within the limits of their resources to prevent breaches of the law. They have been instructed to take appropriate action to prevent further forcible entries”. The statement said that writs had been issued in Court on behalf of the Ministers of Works and Health against the Bedford House and Fountain Court trespassers, claiming damages, and seeking an injunction to restrain the continuance of trespass. “In addition”, the report says, “a report on all the facts’ has been submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions, who is considering in the ordinary course of his duties the question of "instituting proceedings for criminal conspiracy against the organisers and participators of this unlawful movement”.

SYMPATHISERS AID SQUATTERS

(Rec. 6.15). LONDON, Sept. 12. Sympathisers with the squatters lay three deep in the street outside Abbey Lodge, holding up the traffic, as a protest against the police refusal to allow extra blankets to go into the building. At the Ivanhoe Hotel there are forty squatters. They lowered baskets by a string, into which sympathisers put milk, bread, and pots and pans. The police have cordoned both these buildings’, allowing nobody in or out. GLASGOW SQUATTERS EVICTED (Rec. 6.15). LONDON, Sept. 12. Strong police reinforcements stood by last night while fifty squatters were evicted from a house in .the West End of Glasgow city, which they had occupied for a week. Their furniture was stacked in the street. COMMUNIST PAPER’S APPEAL FOR WORKERS TO RALLY TO SQUATTERS (Rec. 10.5). LONDON, Sept. 12. The London Communist organ, the “Daily Worker”, in its leading articles, urges workers to rally in defence of squatters. The paper says: “The Government’s bogey talk about anarchy will not scare workers. Nobody will believe that Britain has been plunged into chaos, and that law and order are endangered because a tiny fraction of the homeless has at last found decent living places”.