MAY DAY

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 2 May 1928, Page 11

MAY DAY

CELEBRATIONS IN EUROPE.

PASS OFF QUIETLY.

NO TROUBLE IN PARIS

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION—BY ELECTRIC.

TELEGRAPH—COPYRIGHT.) (AUSTRALIAN PRESS ASSOCIATION.) Received 1.20 p.m. to-day. LONDON, May 1

May Day was relatively quiet in Europe. It was taken seriously in Germany and Russia, hut merely as an excuse for a. holiday.

At Paris, where the chief feature was an entire absence of taxi cabs, the riots which the Communists' prophesied failed to materialise, probably owing to the strong display of police, but they were not required. In Beilin it was estimated that 1,500.000 workers absented themselves from work. There were enormous demonstrations, Socialist and Communist organisations parading the streets with bands and red flags.

The keynote of the Vienna, demonstration was the demand for the release of. Bela Run. Otherwise the city was quiet, thanks to showers of rain and the fact that Socialist and Communist demonstrations were widely separated. In Warsaw two were' killed and 50 injured in a fight between Communists and Socialists.

All shops in Moscow were' closed for 48 hours, and every house in the city hung out- red flags. Hawkers sold red tulips. The celebrations took the form of vast processions of armed Russia to the Red Square. The commander of the Red army took the salute from the top of Lenin’s tomb. Tanks, guns, cavalry, sailors and masses of armed workers held the procession while squadrons of aeroplanes were stunting above and the massed, bands playing the song of the Volga, boatmen. Many ribald banners were carried, caricaturing Sir Austen Chamberlain.