WAR ON COMMUNISTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27028, 12 March 1949, Page 7

WAR ON COMMUNISTS

AUSTRALIAN EX-SERVICEMEN AT BOURKE RIOT AT ELECTION MEETING SYDNEY, Mar. 11. The police at Bourke last night rescued three or four Communists, when 1500 persons attacked them and threatened to run them out of town. The total population of Burke is 2025. The riot occurred at a meeting in Oxley street, convened by Dr H. J. P. McMeekin, Communist candidate for Cobar, in the by-election to be held on Saturday to fill a vacant seat in the State Legislative Assembly. As soon as the meeting started, the crowd, which is believed to have been led by local members of the Returned Servicemen’s League, counted out Russia. Dr McMeekin, and the Communist Party, and then sang the National Anthem continuously for 45 minutes. When Dr McMeekin angrily tried to shout above the singing, the crowd surged forward, smashed his campaign table to pieces, and began to pelt the candidate and his supporters with eggs. They tore out the wires of the amplifying system, and closed in about Dr McMeekin’s party. Covered by the police, the Communists escaped to their car, but not before the shirt was torn from Dr McMeekin’s back. Pursued by three cars and a truck loaded with members of the Returned Servicemen’s League, the Communists raced to Bourke Police Station, and asked for protection, which was given. A Vigilantes Committee of 15 men picketed the station till early this morning, when the Communists left escorted by the police, but still followed by the vigilantes. Only one of the four Communists now remains in the town. He is W. Fox, who was admitted to hospital early to-day, after having been found last night in a dazed condition hiding in bushes near the railway line. It is believed he has concussion, though he has no apparent injuries on the head and cannot remember being struck. Demonstrations broke out again today, when a crowd surrounded the hotel with the avowed intention of seeing that the Communist Party took the first train out. “Fox is only stalling for time, because he knows he has to get out of Bourke —and fast,” said a spokesman of the Returned Servicemen’s League. “We intend to run every Communist out of town.”