TENSE SITUATION

Hokitika Guardian, 5 December 1932, Page 5

TENSE SITUATION

POLICE INTERVENE

AT UNEMPLOYED PROCESSION.

(Per Press Association Copyright.)

WELLINGTON, December 3

Strong police preparations and a prior announcement that no gathering would be permitted dampened enthusiasm and a half-hearted demonstration wa s mad© by the unemployed to-day. The proce-'bhjn wa s supposed to start from Courtney Place at eleven a.m. and to traA f el the main streets to Parliament Buildings, but only a few men carrying bundles of banners for distribution, approached the 4 meeting place. They were immediately taken under control by police, Avhtle six mounted men and large numbers of ordinary police kept the traffic open in the busy centre, and allOAved nobody to congregate.

There we re calls of “To Parliament !’’ Thei?e resulted in a genera' drift of the spectators, among whom wei‘© “special” constables, and others who obviously were in sympathy with the demonstrators, towards th© centre of th© city.

There Were frequent dispersals of th© public by th© police who prevented lany large gatherings. By twelve thirty p.m, everyone geemed to have departed probably for the usual Satur day afternoon sports, and th© space fronting Parliament grounds wag in an empty condition, the police preventing any demonstration.

To-day five arrests were made, the charges being of disorderly behaviour and breaches of by-laws. The men will appear before the Magistrate on Monday. They are: ißoy Evans, John James Porter, Charle s Thomas Holden, William Henry Gladwyn, and a man named Wilkinson.

At the outset about 600 attempted t 0 form a procession in Cambridge Terrace. Th e whole of the police reserves had been mobilised from an early hour and immediately a procession seemed like gathering it was quietly broken up by the police, who had th© leaders sorted out and removed them and their banners to a place where they could do no harm. Between 300 and 400 men decided to carry on with the scheme by walking in groups along the pavement and congregating in front of Parliament, where they Intended to hold a 'demonstration. The police shepherded them all tile way along the streets and every time a banner appealed the bearer was rempyed. ( One man appeared on Lambton Quay carrying a skeleton, but he and the skeleton went the way of the other leader.

By the time' they reached Government buildings about a dozen of the loaders lmd been taken in charge. An soon as an effort was made to congregate in the centre of the Quay mounted police shifted the mob back to the pavements where, leaderlesg, they stood about in groups. . The presence of thirty or forty policemen un'der Inspector Lander, with Commissioner Wohlman in the vicinity, attracted a crowd of sightseers which grew ifo about 2000 at noon, a quarter of an hour ‘after the concentration movement had begun.

Anyone who attempted to address the mob was taken into custody, and this wa s 'done efficiently and quietly, except in one caee where there was ;• bit of a scuffle. Gradually the spectators departed and by 12.30 there were only about 500 people in sight, with a large force of police occupying all the strategical positions. The sight of a large bulge on each constable's hip ana long staves on the saddles of 'half a dozen mountdd men who moved up and down," kept the demonstrators in order and no serious effort was made to gather in a large group. One party of about a hundred mot, but two constables quietly worked themselves into the centre and ordered their dispersal. With hardly a mur mer they shifted, knowing full well that the two men who gave the orders had (reinforcements all rOun'd them. For something like ten minutes or a quarter of an 'hour the situation was tenge, no one knowing what would happen, but by one o’clock there was only a handful left. .Meanwhile, about two dozen leaders had been taken *n charge. While the mob was outside the building Major-General iSinclair•Burgess, General Officer Commanding the. New Zealand Forces, was inside, although it is not known whether his presence had anything to do with the situation which might develop. 'Although they were not seen, it is understood that the police had warned a lairge number of specials, who 'were on duty after the riot of May 10, to again stand by.