A PROTEST.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19815, 5 December 1919, Page 6

A PROTEST.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I -wish to protest most emphatically against the attempt to bhuno the Labour Party and tho " Bolsheviks ' for last night's brawl nfc tho Gloucester Street entrance to tho Colosseum. The crowd was composed, in tho groat majority, of decent, respectable citizens who bad gone along with the intention of hearing the Prime Minister. According to tho advertisements the Armagh Street entrance) wa»s reserved exclusively for ladies and their escorts, and those of us who did not have ladies with us had no choice- but to rely upon thopromi.se that wo would be admitted from Gloucester Street: after 7.45. Some of the crowd were waiting outside from as early as seven o'clock', and until about eight o'clock thoro was no disturbance or rowdyism of any kind. It was then, however, that we realised that we had been '" had," and that it xni not intended to open tho doors to us at all. Our feelings of indignation were unanimous: we resented tho broach of faith which had been mack', and il was then that the trouble begun. -Now, may I point out that included amongst the great crowd wero largo numbers of Keformors and Liberals, and tho resentment against those iV spo-.isiblo was general. Wo felt that we had been treated in a most: dishonest manner, and all parties joined force* in the general nioleo which followed. -Not. nemwawnroof what had been going i on at the Armagh Street entrance',"' and that the hall was already packed almost to suffocation, we determined that wo had a right to get insido. A section of the crowd battered the door in, and we pushed and jammed into the building. The result was that tho meeting was broken up—not as ib alleged by tiie Red Fed clement, but by a couple of thousand of citizens of ail shades of opinion who felt, and I believe still feel, that it was never intended that they should be allowed to enter the mnding. The responsibility tor tho disturbance Tests, not with tho crowd, but with the persons who foolishly attempted to prevent a portion of the onuuunity from having tho opportunity of Hearing tho Prime Minister speak.—- 1 am, etc., DISGUSTED.