Two Pacifist Speakers Arrested

Northern Advocate, 10 February 1940, Page 7

Two Pacifist Speakers Arrested

[Special to “Northern Advocate ”] WELLINGTON, This Day. Nearly 5000 people watched the arrest last night of two men who attempted to speak at meetings of pacifists and Communists. They refused to stop when ordered to do so by the police. One of them was the Rev. O. E. Burton. Excitement Expected It was generally known in Wellington that pacifists intended holding a meeting at the corner of Dixon and Manners Streets, and hundreds of people .assembled in expectation ot some excitement. In the meantime, 30 police constables, reinforced by detectives in plain colthes, mingled with the crowd. Soon after his arrival on the scene, Mr Burton remarked that if he v/as not allowed to speak the meeting would proceed at another point as arranged. Clergyman Arrested By this time there was a dense cifewd around the central figure, and when he was asked by the police to stop speaking because of the possibility of a disturbance being caused, Mr Burton refused to stop. He got little further than a few words beyond “ladies and gentlemen’’ when he was taken in charge. Another Arrest After his arrest another man .attempted to speak, and was arrested. A third man also began to speak, but stopped when asked to do so. Apart from a few incipient fights, which did not develop into anything serious, and a few arguments in the crowd, nothing further occurred, and the crowd gradually dispersed.