COMMUNIST DEMONSTRATION

Otago Witness, Issue 4038, 4 August 1931, Page 50

COMMUNIST DEMONSTRATION

PROCESSION IN CHRISTCHURCH CONSTABLE RENDERED UNCONSCIOUS. CHRISTCHURCH, August 1. Four men were arrested after fierce clashes between the police and an unauthorised procession of Communists and unemployed this morning. One policeman was knocked unconscious when he was rushed by a group at the railway station. It is alleged that he was kicked on the head. The procession was to have started trom the railway station at 11 o’clock, and while the crowd waited A. F. Marshall, one of the leaders, addressed the men. The police ordered the crowd of over 1000 to move on, but they refused. In an attempt to break up the gathering Sergeant Leckie was pulled from underneath the chair on which Marshall was standing. The crowd then commenced to obstruct the police, who drew their batons. A gang of men rushed Constable Phillips, who fell unconscious when his head came in violent contact with the pavement. The demonstration, it is stated, was the direct outcome of orders from the Communist International (Moscow) for a worldwide “celebration of a fighting day against war.” The Communists arranged and led the actual procession, which included only 25 or 30 men and two or three women. The crowd which followed them, however, numbered many hundreds. The scene at the Bank of New Zealand corner for a time assumed u gb' proportions, but firm attitude by the police and prompt arrests quelled the trouble. The men arrested in connection with the disturbance are M’Kechnie, C. F. Riley. Henry Dodge, and George Harris. They- will be charged with being guilty of disorderly conduct and inciting lawlessness. Constable Phillips has recovered consciousness. His condition is not serious. WELLINGTON DEMONSTRATION SPEECHES ADVOCATING COMMUNISM. WELLINGTON, August 1. The procession of a small body of Communists followed by a few hundred idle curious citizens took place to-day from the Trades Hall to the steps of the Town Hall, where speeches advocating Communism were made. About a dozen cardboard banners with scarlet lettering and a red flag emblematic of the Workers of the World were carried. The chief exhibit was a black coffin labelled “Number Five Scheme.” “Result of Unemployment,” “ O Death, Where is Thy Sting.” The police did not interfere. The speakers were afterwards heckled by members of the crowd. One of the reasons the Communist procession called at the Town Hall was to demand from the Mayor the reason why the Communists had been refused permission to hold street meetings. The Mayor was not available to the deputation though he arrived a few minutes after the speakers had had their say from the steps and departed up Cuba street.