A FLEET WEEK INCIDENT.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume 38, Issue 38, 28 August 1908, Page 4

A FLEET WEEK INCIDENT.

FRACAS NARROWLY AVERTED. The Auckland Star relates the following rather exciting episode which occurred in that city during the visit of the American Fleet: —Fleet week is over, and one of the matters moat generally commented upon was the absolute freedom from any thing approaching disorder. On one or two occasions, however, there were incidents whch went perilously near the borderland of a riot.

One Buch instance, illustrative of the easy manner in which a crowd may change from a happy to a truculent mood is worthy of note. The crowd was at its thickest at the tramcar terminus at the foot of Queen-street. The bars had emptied out their hundreds, Bad the brilliantly lighted streets were packed with a swaying aeething crowd. Here and there were to be seen groups of blue jackets who had been imbibing perhaps a little too freely, and it was evident that one such group was on the lookout for any amusement which might preaent itaelf. They Bang, they laughed, and while rather more boisterous than others, were nevertheless not guilty of anything; which would cause offence to passersby. As they neared the bottom of the street, however, one of the party was suddenly inspired to a little more exciting devilment, and without hesitation he shinned up a post to which two flags—a Union Jack and a Stars and Stripes—were attached. Seizing the Yankee emblem, he pulled it from its postion, and affixed it a couple of feet higher ud than the British Ensign

At this rather critical moment a small party of British tars : chanced along. Noticing the American flag flying above the British, a sailorman climbed up the pole with all the agility of a true British tar, and from his position above the heads of the seething crowd, he tore the Stars and Stripes to fragments. An angry roar went up from several hundred American throats and as the Britisher dropped to the ground the American who had been originally responsible for the trouble rushed at him. The Jack Tar knew how to use hi 3 fists, however, and the American went down like a log. Severall members of the fleet patrol picked their man up, and hustled him away, while a 'crowd of citizens surrounded the Britisher.

For a while it looked as though a riot was imminent, and there was an uneasy feeling in the air, about 700 Americans and a large crowd of British tars surging around the scene of the fracas.

A true chord of the Jgood feeling which prevailed, however, turned the situation from one of gravity to that of enthusiasm. A bluejacket, pushing his way along the Btreet, all alone, singing happily to himself, and waving a Stars and Stripes to the accompaniment of hia own music, took in the situation at a glance. Clambering up the pole with monkey like agility, he thrust his flag into the socket from which the other bannerette had been torn, alongside the Union Jack, and the two colours mingled together again. From his vantage ground at the top of the pole he drawled out, with a happy Yankee twang: "Boys, I guess this is just how it ought to be; not one above the other, but side by side."

Instantly the scene was changed. The tension gave way to light heartedness, and cheer upon cheer rang through the air.