STUDENTS DUCKED.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 456, 18 May 1932, Page 11

STUDENTS DUCKED.

Riotous Day at Melbourne University. COMMUNISTIC MOVE RESENTED. (Special to the “ Star.”) MELBOURNE, May 4. The friction between the University Labour Club and a large number of i other students, which has been increasing for the past twelve months and led to the disturbance at the University on Monday night, reached a climax yesterday afternoon. Before a gathering of over 1000 students, representing both sexes, three members of the Labour Club were thrown into the University lake. A rumour spread among the students yesterday morning that a further attempt would be made to duck these members following the attempt which was frustrated by the police on Monday night. The disturbance began about 12.15 p.m., when a large body of medical students set out to find a student named Ingwerson, who, they alleged, made seditious statements at the meeting on Monday night. Mr Ingwerson himself said yesterday that his speech was a burlesque of a Communist oration, but the medical students objected to his statement that the British flag was “ saturated with the blood of martyrs.” On finding that Mr Ingwerson was not present at a lecture they were attending, the students left the room in a body and surrounded the University cafeteria, where Mr Ingwerson was at lunch. He was dragged out and hustled towards the lake, but several members of the Labour Club, including one woman, went to his rescue, and, after a scuffle, he escaped by way of the building of the University branch of the National Bank. After the arrival of the Registrar (Mr J. P. Bainbridge) and a constable, many of the students dispersed. At this point two strangers were noticed in the grounds. They said they were members of the unemployed and were sympathisers of the Labour Club. They were ordered to leave by the police, and were escorted out of the grounds by about 200 students. A number of strangers, said to be Communists from the city, were present at the meeting on Monday night, and a number of “ blackjacks ” and “ knuckledusters,” which they dropped during the fracas were found in the University grounds yesterday. Determined Action. After 1 p.m., a very large crowd of students began to gather outside the club house, many of whom said they were determined to take immediate action. Five members of the Labour Club, including Mr Sam White, one of the two delegates to visit Russia, and one woman member, had meanwhile barricaded themselves in the editorial office of the University weekly newspaper 4 ‘ Farrago,” piling furniture against the locked doors. The office opens into the common room of the club house, in which several hundred students had collected by about 1.40 p.m. The beseiged members refused to leave the building, and in an unsuccessful attempt to enter the office a glass panel was broken. The students inside the office asked the cause of the trouble, and were answered with loud shouts of “ Disloyalty.” Eventually the crowd opened the door, calling out, “ We want White.” Mr J. R. Waterman, acting for the president of the students’ representative council, tried unsuccessfully to effect a reconciliation, and the struggle commenced. Two men, one of whom was not a member of the Labour Club, fought fiercely in defence of White. One of them, Mr G. Vellacott, was seized by the crowd and rushed through a lane formed by the students from the club house door to the lake, into which he was thrown. Messrs S. White and J. Harris, two members of the Labour Club in the office, were thrown into the lake after Vellacott had scrambled out. While they were standing in about eighteen inches of water, the crowd of over 1000 students sang the National Anthem, and gave cheers for the King and the British Empire, and hoots for the Communist Party. They refused to allow the two students to come out of the lake until they also had sung the National Anthem. Girl Broke Down. The woman student who had been in the office broke down, and was later taken away with Harris and White in a car, to the back of which students tied an old boot. Several policemen were present during the ducking, but did not interfere. About eight minutes later the police patrol that had been summoned by the Registrar, amidst thunderous cheers, arrived, but left again immediately. Mr White said later that he did not intend to tak§ any action. Mr Harris, one of the victims, challenged one of the attacking students to a fight with the gloves in the University sports pavilion. The bout began shortly after 4 p.m., and Mr Harris was knocked out in the third round. The fight was witnessed by about 150 students. In “ Farrago,” the University newspaper, which was published yesterday afternoon, a proclamation was issued by the students’ representative council, suspending all University Society meeting until further notice in order to enable the position to be reviewed and some understanding to be reached. In an announcement H the same paper Professor Agar, president of the professorial board, reminded students “ that student clubs and societies are accorded almost complete freedom < with the exception of the right to use the University buildings and organisation for the advocacy of sectional views to the public), and that this freedom depends upon the recognition by stud-

ents of their obligation to conduct their meetings in the same liberal spirit.” Commenting on the disturbance, the Registrar said that no such widespread demonstration of feeling had ever before been known in the history of the University. Gesture to Communists. After the disturbance a student, who was appointed as spokesman by those who carried out the duckings, said that the demonstration was intended as a gesture to the Communistic element in the University to show that it would not be permitted to interfere with activities that were not in harmony with its own. This student was referring to the speech made by Mr White at the meeting of the University Historical Society on Thursday night, in the course of which he gave offence to other students present. Professor Agar, referring to the incident on Monday night, said, “ One must regret the occurrence, but I think the natural excitement of a student rag was responsible for a very great deal of it. That, however, does not excuse those who took part in the occurrence. The small extremist section has been given so much publicity that the students feel that the student body as a whole has been misrepresented to the public. But it is regrettable that students should have chosen such a method of expressing disapproval, which is contrary to all the ideals a University should stand for. No doubt the opposition encountered led to the affair going further than had been planned.” When questioned later regarding the developments of yesterday afternoon, Professor Agar said the professorial board had not yet chosen its course of action, but would confer shortly.