MAY DAY RIOTS FEW IN EUROPE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18453, 2 May 1928, Page 4

MAY DAY RIOTS FEW IN EUROPE.

RUSSIA AND GERMANY ALONE TAKING ITS CELEBRATION SERIOUSLY (United Press Assn.—By Electric T elegraph. —Copyright.) (Received Mav 2, 12.20 p.m.) LONDON, May 1. May Day was relatively quiet in Europe. It was taken seriously in Germany and Russia, but was merely an excuse for a holiday in Paris, where the chief feature was the entire absence of taxi-cabs. The riots which the Communists prophesied failed to materialise, probably owing to the strong display of police, but they were not required. In Berlin it is estimated that 1,500,000 workers absented themselves from work. There were, enormous demonstrations by Socialist and Communist organisations, who paraded the streets with bands and red flags. The keynote of the Vienna demonstrations was the demand for the release of B§]a Kun. Otherwise the city was quiet, thanks to showers of rain and the fact that Socialist and Communist demonstrations were widely separated.. In Warsaw two were killed and fifty injured in a fight between Communists and Socialists.

All shops in Moscow were closed for forty-eight hours and every house in the city hung out red flags. Hawkers were in the streets selling red tulips. The celebrations took the form of vast processions to the Red Square, where the Commander of the Red Army took the salute from the top of Lertin’s tomb.

Tanks, guns, cavalry, sailors, and masses of armed workers marched in procession, while squadrons of aeroplanes were stunting above and massed bands were playing “ Song of the Volga Boatmen.”

Many ribald banners were carried caricaturing Sir Austen Chamberlain.— Australian Press Ass&ciation.