OPEN-AIR DEBATE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20819, 11 March 1931, Page 11

OPEN-AIR DEBATE.

TWO WOMEN IN SYDNEY.

COMMUNISTS' INTERJECTIONS.

It was expec:ed that a debate which was held in the Sydney Domain on a recent Sunday afternoon would have entertaining results. A few policemen who wandered about feared that there .might be the necessity for work of a most uncongenial character—the arrest of e;xcited women. It hid been announced that there would be a debate between Mrs. Thomas Walsh (formerly Miss Pankhurst) and Mrs. Joan Devanney, who is described as a novelist, upon conditions in Russia. Mrs. Devanney was to assert that there was; a democracy in Russia, and Mrs. Walsh was to deny. They asserted and denied from 3 o'clock until 5 o'clock with various interruptions. There was the possibility of a conflict between Communists and Australian loyalists, but the crowd, like the debaters, merely used its tongues. The interjectors were known Communists, They gave Mrs. Walsh something to answer, but she was capable. Her knowledge of Communists and their activities gave her a great advantage. The section of the crowd that favoured Russia intimated that it hated Australian democracy. Those who opposed it suggested that they should "get out" and, receiving no answer, they added that probably the Communists would leave the Commonwealth if they were not paid bv the Soviet Government to- be a disturbing element in British countries. The Communists were strong enough to defeat Mrs. Walsh in the vote which was taken at the end of the debate.