LONDON STREET DISORDERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23340, 4 November 1937, Page 9

LONDON STREET DISORDERS

COMMUNISTS AND FASCISTS 111 ARRESTS MADE POLICE MAKE BATON CHARGES <From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, Oct. 6. The hatred felt by the Communists for the supporters of Fascism was demonstrated once again in South-east London streets when Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, led 2700 of his followers on a march to celebrate its fifth anni-' versary last Sunday. Communists barricaded the streets with barbed wire fences, smashing hawkers' sheds and barrows, and raiding a timber yard for material. This action brought them into contact with the police, whose duty it was to remove the barricades in order to preserve the public-peace. Clashes occurred, batons were drawn, 11) arrests were made, and 28 people were taken to hospital—and the Fascists completed their march to hold their meeting. More than 500 women were in the Fascist ranks. When the first barricade was erected and the police moved up to destroy it stones were flung from the crowd. The police drew their batons . j clear a section of the street. Almost the same moment a bus arrived with police reinforcements. It was met by a fusillade of stones, bricks, tiles, and pieces of wood from people in the street and on the rooftops. All the windows of the bus were broken. A man who climbed a lamp post and waved a red flag was hauled down by 'wo officers and arrested. FIREWORKS AND STONES With the arrival of about 20 more mounted police and seven van loads of foot officers the area was cleared, but a few minutes later a second barricade was built—then a third and a fourth as each preceding one was torn down. From the back of the crowd fireworks were flung, and one officer's horse reared, threw its rider, and rolled on him. More stones were thrown, and again the police charged with drawn batons. As the crowd retreated before them children were knocked down and trampled on. Meanwhile police climbed to the roofs of buildings overlooking the scene and cleared away men who were thought to have hrown stones. Then the attention of the crowd was diverted by the report that the route had been changed. Immediately hundreds of people surged towards Tooley street to head off the procession there. The crowd scrambled across the street, breaking the lines of marchers three or four times in a few seconds. It I needed three policemen to carry one

arrested woman, struggling and kicking, to the police van. In another place baton charge after baton charge was made by the police. Ambulances clanged in and out of the crowds. Cannon fireworks exploded among marchers and mounted police. Trees were wrenched from the sides of the streets to bar the marchers. Iron ovens, cisterns, and wheelbarrows were chained together and strung across the roads. Sir Oswald Mosley and his men did not make good their intention of marching through the heart of Bermondsey. Massed crowds of antiFascists singing variously, " God Save the King," "Rule Britannia," "The Internationale," and "Land of Hope and Glory," forced them round the rim of the borough. SOLID MASSES OF PEOPLE Some of the streets, were so crowded that it would have been impossible to clear them, and the police, shepherding the procession, diverted it time . after time as they found solid masses of people determined to obstruct the march. In the localrW of West, lane houses had their windows and doors barricaded, and the tramway authorities had taken the precaution to put out of sight such articles as iron bars needful for working the tramcars. Sir Oswald Mosley was able to speak for rather more than an hour. There were few verbal interruptions, but occasionally fireworks thrown over the heads of the police exploded among the audience. In the meantime a Communist meeting was conducted within 100 yards, but speeches on both sides tended towards moderation rather than provocation. The following day man* heavily bandaged men appeared at the Tower Bridge Police Court, where 106 cases arising out of the march were down for hearing. Two courts were occupied. The charges included possessing offensive weapons, throwing missiles, setting light to fireworks, insulting behaviour, wilful damage, and assaulting police 'officers. POLICE COURT SENTENCES Some of the sentences were fairly severe. One man, a compositor, was sent to prison for one month for using insulting behaviour. "I saw marching there representatives and friends ■ of people who bombed and machine-gunned women and children in Spain and China. I had some justification for being excited," he said. The magistrate said that it was a case of a man deliberately leaping into the procession "fighting mad." An officer said that the man struck four or five members of the procession. A woman, charged with threatening behaviour, was alleged to have shouted from London Bridge Station steps, " Down with the M :r.ley rats," and "Give it to them, comrades." It was said that she threw tomatoes and struck a mounted policeman's horse, causing it to rear. She fought and struggled with several policemen, and

shouted, "Help, comrades, help." One officer, who said that the lining of his tunic was torn in a struggle in the police car, stated that the woman kicked him across the throat. The magistrate said that she must have been like a wild animal. She was fined £5, or 21 days, and demanded time to pay. When this was refused she was forcibly removed from the dock. A man who had his head bandaged was charged with unlawfully possessing a piece of concrete and with assaulting a policeman,-and sentenced to six months' imprisonment. He was said to have hit an officer on the leg with the concrete and to have tried to hit another. The magistrate, addressing him; said: "I have no doubt that you behaved in an extremely dangerous way and that you formed part of one of the worst elements." . - Yet another man, who denied striking a policeman on the side of the face, was sentenced to four months imprisonment. "It was a serious assault upon the officer—there is no question about that—an absolutely unprovoked one," remarked the magistrate. "It looks to me as if you were one of the many people who came to create trouble." PRESS COMMENT Commenting on the scenes, The Times said: "The impression made upon impartial onlookers was extremely disagreeable. It seemed to them that a deliberate attempt was being made by hooligans, of whom many did not appear to belong to the district, to create disorder. The result was the spectacle, happily rare in this country, of crowds of people angry or frightened or both, and an afternoon which reflected little credit op the citizens of London, whether they came with the foolish idea that the intolerant creed of Fascism should be met by intolerance or with no more definite feeling than one of equally foolish curiosity. . . . The events showed that the police can preserve order at actual meetings, but to ask them to prevent disorder when processions are passing along crowded and sometimes narrow streets is to ask .the impossible. Public opinion does not ask for any encroachment upon public rights, but it can legitimately ask for protection from public nuisances. The opinion of the Daily Express was: "Sir Oswald Mosley and those who think what he thinks take their Sunday walk through Bermondsey The Communists interfere with brickbats, bottles and firework 'bombs. Next, a disgraceful riot, heavy police costs, and acres of newspaper publicity for Mosley, who is entitled to be heard in perfect silence and probably would be but for the gutterurchin tactics of his opponents. The Communists r 1 the Fascists much good." „____________