MAY DAY PARADES IN EUROPE

Grey River Argus, 3 May 1949, Page 5

MAY DAY PARADES IN EUROPE

London And Berlin Gashes Moscow’s Big Demonstration LONDON, May 1. On Sunday, May uay demonstrations were nelu mrougn Europe oy traues unionists and workers. xn koiiuun, tne nacies council held >a meeting in Traxaigar Square, instead ox naving its usual procession, winch naci under me can on political processions reei-ntiy imposed by the Home secretary, xvir chuter Ede. LONDON COMMUNISTS attacked A disturbance began when a group of Communists formed up in a nearby street, uniurled their oanners, and prepared to march into Traralgm square. Police raced to intercept them, but a hostile section of the crowd got there first. Banners were torn down, shouts and boos exchanged, and blows struck betore the police intervened to protect the communists. ugiy scenes, with some violence marked the end of the meeting ar thousands of people disobeyed police instruction and tried to form processions to march to another meeting in Upper St. Martin’s Lane, where the secretary of the Communist Barty Mr Harry .Pollitt, was addressing t. crowd. . , Eight men and one girl were later charged with obstruction and assaulton the police. Two constables had their helmets torn from their heads during the disturbance and hundreds of cars and scores of buses were brought to a standstill for more than an hour. A crowd of about 2000 people singing the Internationale and carrying banners also filled the 200-yards length of Upper St. Martin’s Lane. Thirty police took up positions across the top of the lane and there were many minor scuffles between the police and groups of people blocking the road before the demonstrators were sufficiently calm to listen to the speeches. STRIKES IN PARIS Paris was unusually quiet because May Day strikes kept the buses and most taxis off the streets. BIG PARADE IN MOSCOW M. Stalin stood for several hours on top of Lenin’s mausoleum in Bed Square, Moscow, reviewing a parade of more than 1,000,000 people. The theme of this year’s May Day demonstration, dominating an Order of the Day read out by Marshal Alexander Vassilevsky, the Soviet Armed Forces minister, and repeated in slogans throughout th a city and banners carried by demonstrators, was that the Red Army would never be used for aggression. The Order of the Day declared that “the ruling circles in America” wanted a new war and that the North Atlantic Pact showed, that this aggressive policy was directed against the U.S.S.R. and the .people’s democracies. “But these efforts of the warmongers will be in vain” *i Stalin’s-son. Major-General Vassily Stalin, led the air parade over Red Square and the aircraft included bombers and a large number of jet planes of a new typePARADES IN OTHER PLACES About 200,000 took part in the de-

monstrations in Prague. President Gottwald reviewed the. military ano civilian parade. He said the parade demonstrated the Czech people’s solidarity with the progressive forces of the world in “the fight against the new warmongers.” Government leaders reviewed parades in centres throughout Eastern Europe. In the Soviet sector of Berlin, thousands of demonstrators gathered in Freedom Square in front of the old German Imperial Palace. WEST BERLIN MARCH BLOCKED In Berlin, West-sector German police. using truncheons, dispersed demonstrators who tried to march through the American sector to the Soviet sector. Some people were injured and several more detained. The American Military Government had ordered • that only members of the unti-Communist independent trade unions should be allowed to march through the sector. POLISH REGIME AGAINST CHURCH In a May Da?; rally in Warsaw M. Alexander Towaje, Vice-Premier, dec'arcd: All attempts by Catholics to start a religious war in Poland woulo tail Enemies, whose sponsorship ol espionage. sabotage, and underground gangs had failed to halt the march of the people’s Poland, had now turned to the Catholic Church. AntiState propaganda was being preacheu and religious fanaticism incited. U.N.C. CONDEMNS NEW YORK, May 1. The United Nations General Assembly by 14 votes to six, to-day expressed its deep concern at accusations made against Hungary and Bulgaria for the alleged suppression of human rights in the trials of Cardinal Mindszentv in Hungary and to Prostestant pastors in Bulgaria. The Assembly approved a reso.ution exmessing the hope that measures would bo “diligently -applied in accordance with the peace treaties, ir. order to ensure respect for human ric-hir: and fundamental freedoms. The question of the Churchmen s trials imnains on the Assembly s agenda for its meeting next Septemcor. The six nations of the Soviet bloc voted against the resolution on the trials. SYDNEY PROCESSION SMALLER ~ " SYDNEY, May 2. Th" May Day procession here war, sraaPer and less spectacular than usual. About seven thousand trade unionists took part. COMMUNISTS ACTIVE IN EGYPT CAIRO, May 1. On Saturday night about 300 agitators were rounded as a precautionary measures against May Day celebrations. The police have discovered documents linking the outlawed Moslem Brotherhood with the Communists. stated the Cairo police commandant, General Ahmed Abdel Hadi. They were discovered during police raids yesterday in two parts of Cairo. . . , Great quanitities of explosives sufficient to blow up the entire city were also discovered.