MARCHING WOMEN

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12425, 20 April 1926, Page 6

MARCHING WOMEN

DEMONSTRATION IN LONDON AGAINST STRIKES AND LOCK-OUTS POLICE PREVENT DISORDER By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. Reuter’s Tel err am. LONDON, April 18. The largest demonstration of women seen since the days of the suffragettes was carried out under the allspices of the Women’s Guild of Empire. Twenty thousand people marched from the city to the Albert Hall to participate in an anti-strike meeting. The gathering was composed of all classes of the community. . A large proportion of the demonstrators reached the metropolis by special trains and charabancs from Scotland, Wales, and the provinces. There was some display of unsympathetic feeling, and a noisy scene greeted the arrival of “General” Mrs Flora Drummond and her chief supporters at the assembling point on horseback, a section of the crowd lining the pavement and hissing and deriding them. Among the horsewomen, who acted as outriders or marshals, were one of the Duchess of York’s bridesmaids and several members of the Whaddon Hunt. , HOSTILE 'PROPAGANDISTS Men attempted to hold a meeting at the head of the procession, just before it started, hut the police moved them on. The march was watched by dense crowds all along the route. The marchers were subjected to cries and groans from men who marched alongside, distributing bills setting out the case for the miners and engineers, and a demand for the establishment of Soviets in England. Mounted police prevented a few of their attempts to break the ranks. A slight scuffle occurred at Hyde Park corner, between knots of Communists and British Fascist!, .in which the latter captured two flags. BOOING AND CHEERING As the procession neared the Albert Hall, the women started London’s craze song, “Valencia,” outside the hall Rival feelings ware expressed in the form of booing and cheering. The singing of the National Anthem and “Land of Hope and Glory” was countered by the “Red Flag.” Resolutions were passed at the Albert Hall denouncing strikes and lockouts, the speakers including the wives of a South Wales miner, a Lothians railwayman, and a Glasgow engineer. After this, subscriptions for the cause, exceeding £6OOO in amount, were presented to the new president of the guild, Lady Muriel Gore-Browne.