NEWFOUNDLAND’S PREMIER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 16 April 1932, Page 4

NEWFOUNDLAND’S PREMIER

A PREVIOUS ASSAULT Recent cables gave details of an assault on Sir Richard Squires, Prime Minister of Newfoundland The “Literary Digest” 'desijTbes a- previous assault on Sir Richard Squires on 11th February:— Struck in the face and generally manhandled in Iris office by a mob of unemployed, Prime Minister Sir Richard Squires of St Johns, Newfoundland, was forced to order larger food 'rations for those on the dole. Outside the Council Chamber a mob of nearly 2,G00 men and women milled round in the street with angry .threats and imprecations. The leaders fought their way past the police guards, invaded the Premier’s office, and threatened to throw Sir Richard out of a third floor window if lie failed to increase their rations. lie attempted to reason with them, say St. Johns despatches, but was cutshort by blows Pieces of broken window glass were hurled at him. When lie attempted to escape he was seized by the eollfir and legs and held captive until he consented to telephone to the Dole Office that the demonstrators should he given increased food supplies at once. Banisters were, torn from the stairs in the Government Building, and plate glass windows of doors and windows smashed before the police finally succeeded in restoring order About 20 per cent, of the population is receiving the, dole, it appears, which is now about 1.60 dollars per month for each adult, and night cents for each child. There has- been no fuel allowance. The monthly expenditure at- present is given in Press reports as approximately 140,000 dollars It is estimated, according to a Canadian Press despatch from St. Johns, that 1,200 families of that city are on the Government’s list for rations, while the number receiving rations in the dominion is estimated at 50,000. Under the present system the Government authorises the following rations for each adult per month :—Twenty-one pounds of flour, two yeast cakes, lib of fat-back pork, 21b rolled oats, two gallons potatoes, 31b cabbage, salt, fish, 31b sugar, l!h butler. 21b pea beans. Cables to the “Literary Digest” from St. Johns showed the independent “Telegram” in this mood: “No ono who saw saw the crowd gathered in front of the courthouse but must have been impressed by the orderly spirit displayed. They were serious men who felt they had a grievance, flint should he heard, and they had come to slate that grievance before the authorities. It was ill-ad-vised, indeed, to fail to give them a hearing, Snell a course would have saved them remaining for hours in the open.” An Opposition newspaper’s editorial cabled to the “Literary Digest,” that of the “Daily News,” expressed regret at the action of the unemployed in resorting to force. Rut it added: “At the same time yesterday’s events might have been avoided had ilie cause of (he applicants been fairly heard and met by some, attempt to deal with their showing that the ration was inadequate, and the indignntion of the men because of the continual postponement is undersl amiable. " More severe was the criticism ot (lie St. Johns “Watchman” “The whole unfortunate affair was brongiif .about-by the callous indifference of the Prime “Minister, and his pig-head-ed refusal to meet I he. committee and talk over ways and means, even after the repeated warning that the crowd was in no mood to lie trifled with.