SEQUEL TO RIOT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 204, 29 July 1932, Page 7

SEQUEL TO RIOT

TRIAL AT AUCKLAND. EDWARDS IN COURT. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, July 29. * Tlio trial of James Henry Edwards jS' on a charge of taking part in the ® riot on April 14 was continued in the Supreme Court to-day. The jurymen I were kept together last night. H About thirty witnesses, mostly po- !.(■ licemen, gave evidence for the Crown, If their evidence closely following that Bp given in the Lower Court and in other §5 riot cases. 1? Detective-Sergeant Doyle said he had previously experience of riots, including the Lloyd George riot in Birming- •; ham, but never saw a more disorderJy '>■ crowd than the one outside the Town ;; Haii. Counsel for the defence said the S. Crown, by skilfully presenting the |v evidence, had. coloured the cose !*,' against Edwards. Many weapons were ,i exhibited in the Court, but there was |i; no evidence that Edwards used, any of them. The police made mistakes like other people, and he intended to call ■ evidence which would entirely disKi agree with much of the police testimony. •,!i Edwards, who said he was married, HI with eight children, said that when Ilf walking in the procession to the Town [s» Hall he called out, “the usual work-ing-class slogans,” namely, “Shall we :■ go into the slave camps or shall we if fight for our wives and kids?” He II had no intention of creating trouble. At the start of the riot he saw a |s)h crowd outside the main door break t 5 * into a semi-circle and the police driving them back with batons. Ho ran i; d along, intending to call upon the crowd lit* o give no trouble, but was struck JijV’ down. _ . Cross-examined, accused said he mJjEwas a member of the Communist a?®'Party for about a year and gave three addresses. The Unemployed Workers Movement regarded him as a leader. flfl-The Labour Defence League was comw;ss,‘posed of men in all walks of life. The liolffleague was for the legal and financial if of “men in an unfortunate disposition like myself.” fjKjjjw; Accused, when asked why ho went iffilnto hiding after the riot, said lie .-tolfkiiew from experience that m times of ■' iV ’Sirouble the police alwavs looked foi “f'lSrthoso they considered leaders, partijijl'licularly if they happened to be Coms*s§liiunists. „ , . . The Crown Prosecutor: But you had ■done nothing, you say? 3||sSk Accused: That is so, but I belonged a party not very popular with the if : •'police just then. . Ifffe Accused admitted telling the crowd iMSjhat if they wero attacked they should :f;:'|icrowd round the police and take the ’ .batons off them. Other witnesses for the defence '/li'if.jjrere then called.