Griffins Everywhere

Manawatu Times, Volume 59, Issue 272, 20 November 1934, Page 7

Griffins Everywhere

TWO STATES INTRIGUED United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. SYDNEY, Nov. 19. Rev. Mr. Rivett died at the conclusion of his anti-war address in the Sydney Domain yesterday. Crying “My time is up. I have finished,” Mr. Rivett, who was aged 79, fell to the platform. The movements of Gerald Griffin, the Wellington delegate to the Anti-War Conference, who was ordered back to Wellington by the Commonwealth authorities, are intriguing, the public of two States. Questions being asked are: “Is there one Griffin or several Griffins!’! and “Are the anti-war agitators running a dummy Griffin to mystify the Federal authorities!”

x\.n alleged Griffin addressed a meeting at Newcastle on Saturday afternoon, and at the Melbourne Stadium on Sunday night a man claiming to be Griffin addressed a meeting of protest against the exclusion of Kisch. Five thousand people in the Melbourne Stadium had bceii listening to addresses condemning the Federal Government for banning Kisch and Griffin when the chairman asked “If Griffin is in the hall, will he stand up!’’ Then, as a bespectacled man rose, men and women rushed from their seats cheering and yelling.

When order was restored the man purporting to be Griffin said: “The Federal Government is not able to prevent my entry, and they cannot prevent my message. I want to tell you that in New Zealand we are opposed to war and want, you to help us smash the play of the warmongers.’’