AMAZING SCENE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20716, 8 November 1930, Page 13

AMAZING SCENE.

BANQUET TO PREMIERS. YOUNG MAN INTERRUPTS. MINISTER FORCED TO SEAT. An astonishing scene at tho Guildhall banquet to the Prime Ministers and other delegates to the Imperial Conference in London on October 1 caused consternation among the 800 guests. While Mr. J. JI. Thomas, Secret nrv of Stale for the Dominions, was speaking, 51 young man in evening dress seized him by the arm, forced him to his seat and proceeded to address the assembly. Tho Dominions Secretary was proposing the health of Prince Arthur of Connaught, the chairman, and had just concluded his peroration when the young man suddenly appeared beside him. Mr. Thomas looked round in amazement as his arm was seized and he was pushed into his chair.

" Ladies and gentlemen," shouted the intruder, a slim young man of medium height with fair hair, "I have come from Charterhouse and Cambridge. I im 21. 1 pray for wisdom. I am seeking to help humanity. You laugh, but I have wisdom and I know what is wrong." Mr. Thomas, Mr. J. H. Scullin, the Prime Minister of Australia, General Hertzog, the Prime Minister of South Africa, and the Maharajah of Bikanir, who were nearest the unknown interrupter, moved uneasily in their seats and glanced toward the chairman. "I have found out there is good in everybody," continued tho young man, with perfect self-possession. "Do you know what is wrong '! There is a lack of understanding. I would make people understand."

The brilliant assembly, representative of every part of the Empire, became restive and there were cries of "Order" and "Chair," which grew in volume and eventually came from all parts of the hall. "Will you hear me, ladies and gentlemen?" shouted the interrupter above the turmoil. "Did Luther know when he set out thai he was £oing to form a church ? Did Alexander the Great know when he set out—" here his voice was drowned in the cries for order.

Eventually the red-coated toastmaster and several waiters on a signal from Prince Arthur of Connaught, hustled the interrupter from the top' table, and he was handed over to the police and ejected from the building. Interviewed later by a News Chronicle representative, the young man stated that he was Herbert Jervors, of Wimbledon, and that ho had attended the banquet as h guest. "I have jusfc come down from Cambridge," he said, "and I am going out to make a better understanding between all nations.

"These people here to-night can help me. I was going to ask them to give youth a chance. I am alone and I represent no organisation. I have no home. I am a. wanderer. I just drift about Europe with a knapsack on my back." The police took no action after his ejection, and the man was allowed to return later to the cloak room, where he mingled with the departing guests. The young man subsequently expressed regret for his action and said he might issue a formal apology. "I am very sorry for it all," he said, and deeply regret that I should have acted so. Such publicity also does my cause no good."