MAY DAY SCENES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22099, 3 May 1935, Page 11

MAY DAY SCENES

EUBOPEAN CENTEES SNOWSTORM IN GERMANY BAVARIANS NOT ENTHUSIASTIC NO ARRESTS IN PARIS By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Received May '.I, 5.5 p.in.) LONDON, May 2 The May Day celebrations in Germany were marred by a, snowstorm. Plans for an open-air demonstration in Munich were suddenly abandoned. The official excuse was the inclemency of the weather, but the unofficial reason was the failure of the workers to turn out in sufficient numbers. Although last year 50,000 attended a similar parade, to-day only a few hundred arrived. Later in the day indoor meetings were held and these were attended by 4000 people. There is a growing disinclination on the part of\ Bavarian workers to attend demonstrations. The only really impressive Labour demonstration was in Moscow. Vienna's Unemployed Go Hungry May Day displays were ignored in Italy, Bulgaria and Rumania. In Austria thousands of Vienna's poorest unemployed, most of them old women, waited many hours expecting a distribution of free meals. They were disappointed, as the official arrangements provided an inadequate quantity of food, so the unemployed went home hungry. The public services in France functioned normally. There was not a single arrest in Paris arising out of May Day disorders, which is a record. The day opened in France with a Communist riot at Bagnolet. Knives and revolvers were freely used and one man was killed.

In Madrid the troops were confined to barracks, though armed guards patrolled the streets.

Conflicts With Communists

Three policemen and five Communists wore killed in riots in the Bulgarian village of Enina, Six hundred political prisoners were set free under a May Day amnesty in Austria. The Vienna police swooped down on the Communists' headquarters and arrested 500 persons as a sequel to the throwing of a bomb at a police station in one of the suburbs, which wounded four people. In Moscow the Soviet, in the presence of M. Stalin and other leaders, held an aerial review over Red Square. Six hundred aeroplanes, ranging from four-motored bombers, swift interceptors, 30 new super-fast attackers and two-motored monoplanes, with a speed of 200 miles an hour, took p a rt. A parade of army, navy and tank units was also held.

Civilian processions followed, featuring an enormous serpent, typifying Imperialism, and wearing a Japanese cap over ita pig's snout, marked with a swastika. Similar parades were held in other cities in Russia.