PARADES BY NUDISTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21201, 6 June 1932, Page 14

PARADES BY NUDISTS.

SENSATION IN CANADA. DEMONSTRATORS ARRESTED. POLICE USE ITCHING POWDER. Further particulars have cottio to hand of the nudist parades mentioned in recent cable news from Canada. The paraders were members of Doukhobor settlements in British Columbia, and during a demonstration on Muy 1 fought a fierce b.'itll© with (he police, who were coinpolled to throw itching powder on the bodies of the paradcrs. Nelson gaol on May 2 was filled to overflowing. On the preceding Sunday 117 men and women, allegedly Sons and Daughters of Freedom, cast aside their garments and staged a nude parade. This led to a fight of about three-quarters of an hour with 13 provincial police officers and the freedom of tho paradcrs ended when they were loaded into motor-trucks ■and cars and packed in tho gaol. Tho parade is reported to have been headed by Peto Maloff and a woman fanatic, known as "Old Bottlenose."

The parade, which began at Thrums, 16 miles from Nelson, was partly a proLost against expulsion of Sons of Freedom from tho Doukhobor communities by orthodox leaders. Some of tho freedomloving folk arc said to have Communist leanings, too, and it is possiblo that May Day struck them as a suitable time for their celebration. Apart from this, however, parading in tho nude is an old custom among tho Sons of Freedom. Police Not Needed. As trouble was expected provincial police officers were stationed at Shore Acres, about five miles from Thrums. A motor-cycle officer was sent along the highway, and when he ran into the nude parade summoned the officers. The police gave some 50 nude paradcrs 20 minutes to dress or get off the highway, but they paid no heed. The police quickly closed in on the parade. Tho marchers fought hard and turned streams of water on the police. Tho latter countered by attacking with lengths of garden hose and sprinkling liberal quantities of itching powder on tho naked bodice of men and women, young and old.

This led to a general disrobing by others and a wave of resistance which found oflicers sometimes beating back three and four undo demonstrators. The women were particularly vicious. As the itching powder was not fully effective in the high wind that prevailed the nudists started an offensive by using water from a garden hose. Several officers were drenched before the pipe, lino was disconnected by police. As fast as an officer grabbed a nudist lie was set upon by one, two or three more. One nude woman stepped backwards and fell into a glass hothouse. Another received a severe gash on the forehead and was admitted to hospital. She "forgave" the police, "for they did not, know what , they did." Polico uniforms were clutched and the paraders poured a vile smelling liquid on a police sergeant, ruining his uniform. Cornered in Orchard. When the figliL was over the polico had 84 men and 33 women cornered in an orchard. Many of them were completely devoid of clothing and all were in various stages of undress. Application of the itching powder to bare skins had caused the unfortunate paraders to scratch and their bodies showed largo red blotches. On the previous Saturday a parade in the nude had been held at tho same spot and passing motorists were pelted with rocks by the fanatics. Police went to the scene, but all was quiet upon their arrival. Under an amendment to the criminal code brought down last year by tho Dominion Government, j;crsons guilty of parading in the nude arc liable to three years in prison. Tho parades followed a series of attacks on property in the neighbourhood of Doukhobor settlements, for which members of the Sons of Freedom sect aro blamed. Attempts have been made to_ burn schools, an irrigation pipe was shattered by a bomb, railways were tampered with and a switch was blown up by a bomb jusl after a train passed over it.