STRANGE FUNERAL SCENES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20088, 27 October 1928, Page 13

STRANGE FUNERAL SCENES.

FALL OF FRENCH BUILDING. POLICE GUARD COFFINS. MANY COMMUNISTS ARRESTED. (Received October 'JG. p.m.) United Service. I'ARIS. Oct. '25. There were strange scenes ;it tlie funeral of tlie 19 persons who were killed when a building collapsed at Vincennes on Outo'oer 19 Triple lines of police and city guards formed a cordon -round tlie Vincennes Town Hall, where lay the coffins, covered with (lags and (lowers. The police promptly sorted out the Communists from the crowd, who had declared that they would not permit any official to attend tho funeral.

As thousands of workers poured out from the underground station plain-clothes men discreetly tapped tho Reds on (he shoulder, whispering " This way." The unsuspecting Communists docilely obeyed, and were led to the old fortifications and detained. Rcsisters wero hustled off to ,the police station. Tlie police used a cafe intended for the Communist heaquarters as a trap. They allowed the Reds to report themselves at the cafe, and took them into custody as they made their exit. Tho funeral was carried out with all decorum, under the surveillance of a wire-lessly-equipped police aeroplane, which enabled motor-lorries full of police and armed guards to forestall the Communists at strategical points and to prevent rush

tactics. Those who were detained numbered 1500, of whom 50 wcio armed.