UNION JACK ATTACKED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21165, 23 April 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

UNION JACK ATTACKED.

EXCITED WELSH STUDENTS.

ST. DAVID'S DAY INCIDENT.

YOUTHFUL INDISCRETION.

The Union Jack that floats over Carnarvon Castle was wrenched from'its flagsstaff on March 1, St. David's Day, and torn to pieces in the castle square by a crowd of Welsh students from Bangor. The flag is always flown on the Eagle Tower of the castle, of which Mr. Lloyd George is Constable, while the Red Dragon flag of Wales is 011 a smaller flagstaff on the Eastern Tower. Welsh Nationalists were angry because the Office of Works refused to fly the flag of Wales on St. David's Day on the Eagle Tower. There were two battles for the flag.

In the morning four local members of the Welsh Nationalist Party, carrying out a secretly arranged plan, entered the castle separately like tourists, one carrying a Red Dragon flag in a knapsack. " When wo reached the summit of Eagle Tower," said one of the party afterward, " we at once hauled down the Union Jack and brought out the Red Dragon flag, which was nearly twice the size of the Union Jack. This we nailed to a wire rope and then we'.started singing rational songs. . . " No sooner was the Red Dragon unfurled than the custodian of the castle came running up the steps. Our party blocked the entrance to prevent his intrusion and to defend our national flag. " We saw, however, that the custodian was followed by two other officials. We offered some resistance when they were about to remove the Red Dragon, but a plain clothes policeman made his appearance and we desisted. The Red Dragon was pulled down and the Union Jack replaced." In the afternoon thirty or forty students from Bangor arrived in the town, and the second attack on the Union Jack began. They passed through the turnstiles as ordinary visitors, climbed to the summit of the Eagle Tower, and took down the flag. They carried it to the local oflices of the Welsh Nationalist Party, and then marched with it to the castle square. The chairman of the Bangor branch, who was carried shoulder high, made a

speech protesting against " tho insult offered to tho Welsh flag and to Welsh nationality," and the Union Jack was torn to pieces. Local ex-servicemen looked on angrily, but made no attempt to interfere. The students then returned to Bangor with the fragments of the flag as relies.

A good, deal of indignation was expressed in Bangor after the students returned. Most people agreed that a protest was necessary, but felt that tho students had gone too far. "It is not part of our policy to insult any nation," said a leading Nationalist. Another Union Jack' was floating over the Eagle Tower in tho evening.