WILD FIGHTING

Taranaki Daily News, 21 February 1935, Page 5

WILD FIGHTING

BELGIAN PARLIAMENT BIGGEST UPROAR KNOWN ASSAULT UPON MINISTER ATTACK BY SOCIALISTS BAN ON LABOUR MEETING By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. Rec. 1210 a.m. London ,Feb. 20. The Belgian Government’s decision to prohibit a big Labour demonstration planned for February 24 led to a free fight in the Parliament, says the News Chronicle’s Brussels correspondent. Socialist deputies rushed and punched M. Francois Bovesse, Minister of Finance, in the face. Ten -ushers leaped to the rescue and whole House immediately joined in one of the biggest uproars the Belgian Parliament has ever known. M. Vandervelde, the Socialist Party leader, declared that the prohibition amounted to a provocation of the working class. M. Theunis, the Prime Minister, defended the Government’s action on the ground that the Socialist Press and Socialist speakers had given the proposed demonstration an insurrectionary note. He reproached M. Vandervelde for using two languages, one for Parliament and the other for meetings. Audiences, he added, were being daily incited against the Government. The Socialists are preparing a 24-hours general strike as a protest against the prohibition of the demonstration.