POLICE WARNING

Hokitika Guardian, 23 September 1938, Page 3

POLICE WARNING

AGAINST ROWDYISM AT MEETINGS. (Per Press Association —Copyright). WELLINGTON, September 21. Stern measures to deal with any organised hooliganism at political meetings, with the possibility of Court prosecutions for offenders, are announced by the Commissioner of Police, Mr Cummings. The Police Depatrment had issued instructions to the police throughout the Dominion in respect to maintaining order, as far as practicable, at political meetings, said Air Cummings. The principal concern of the police must al•ways be'to preserve order, and where there was any hooliganism, the police were to adopt a firm attitude at

the outset, 1 so that offenders might know what to expect. The police, of course, would take no notice of occasional interjections or of good-humured banter, but any organised attempt to prevent a speaker from being heard, or any persistent noise, booing, or counting-out would not be tolerated. Any person offending in this, direction would be firmly dealt with and would subsequently be prosecuted for his misoehaviouf.

“It is the desire of the Department to prevent these disturbances, if it is at all possible,’’ said Air Cummings, “and if people who attend these political meetings refuse to comply with requests made to them by the police, then theyvrnust take the consequence of being pi?t out of the meeting, and of being prosecuted in Court. I sincerely hope that there will be no occasion during the whole campaign Eci take these extreme measures; 7 If people will only <be reasonable,''they j will find the*police reasonable, but"where any attempt is made to break up a meeting or to prevent a speaker from being beard, drastic measures will have to be taken.”

If anybody should find that an address was not to his liking, said Air Cummings, lie could got up and leave the hall, or else not attend a meeting at all. This would get over a lot of difficulty. The police appreciated, that interjections and good-natured banter on many occasions helped the speaker, but when this sort of thing was carried too far, it was another matter altogether.