FASCISTS ON TRIAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22422, 17 November 1934, Page 13

FASCISTS ON TRIAL

THE LEADER INCLUDED BRUTAL ATTACKS ALLEGED (United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, November 15. Sir Oswald Mosley and three Blaek Shirts, including William Joyce (director of Fascist propaganda) and Captain Budd (West Sussex district officer), were committed for trial on charges of riotous assembly arising from a Fascist meeting at Worthing on October 9. Yesterday an assault charge against Sir Oswald Mosley, arising froi the same affair, was dismissed. All pleaded not guilty. There were 70 witnesses. The case occupied five days. For the prosecution it was alleged that the Black Shirts, under the leadership of the defendants, brutally attacked the crowd, which hooted and cheered when they departed from the pavilion in which Sir Oswald Mosley addressed his supporters. Sir Oswald Mosley, giving evidence in the assault case, aroused a strong protest when he said the prosecution was the result of political influence and false police evidence. VARIOUS CHARGES LONDON, November 15. Nine Black Skirts were charged variously with assault, damage, inciting and committing a breach of the peace at Fascist meetings at Plymouth. The prosecution alleges that a meeting on October 5, addressed by Sir Oswald Mosley, developed into a free fight, and that, during an open-air meeting on October 11, .the crowd heckled the speakers, who signalled their colleagues to attack the Jiecklers. The victims allegedly include an octogenarian and a cripple. It was also alleged that the assailants were wearing metal body protectors, and that their knuckles were bound with tape.