MONKS REFUSE TO SURRENDER

Southland Times, Issue 23141, 6 March 1937, Page 7

MONKS REFUSE TO SURRENDER

POLICE SENT TO CAPTURE MONASTERY (Received March 5, 6.30 p.m.) . CAIRO, March 4. A force of 250 police has been instructed to capture the monastery near Assuit in which ; the monks are on a “stay-in” strike, and to avoid bloodshed if possible but to retaliate if the monks attack. The action follows failure to reach a compromise when members of a “peace commission,” Rafter being refused admission to the monastery, conducted a shouted conversation, the monks manning the walls, which are 15ft high. The monks formerly received 6/- a month as pocket money. Recently this was increased to 30/-, upon which they accumulated savings with which they made pleasure trips to neighbouring Moslem villages. The residents issued an ultimatum that any further visitors would be shot at sight. The monks were then forbidden, to go to the villages, the decree resulting in the “stay-in” strike and a demand for the removal of the abbot. The oddest "stay-in” strike on record, followed the excommunication of a number of disobedient Coptic monks. The Patriarch ordered their evacuation, and the monks locked their doors, raised the drawbridge and defied efforts to remove it. It was suggested that troops besiege the monastery. The monks have provisions for two years. SCHOOL CHILDREN CAUSE RIOT PARENTS ASSAULT TEACHERS LONDON, March 4. Fifty parents of school children who are on strike on Achill Island, Ireland, assaulted the teacher and roughly handled two constables. Police reinforcements were necessary before the parents were routed. The strike was caused by the teacher’s refusal to prepare meals.