MANY UGLY EPISODES.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 596, 28 October 1932, Page 1

MANY UGLY EPISODES.

Little Damage Done by Mobs. (Received October 28. 1.20 p.m.) LONDON, October 27. About 15,000 unemployed, including the hunger-marchers, gathered in Hyde Park, causing disorganisation of the traffic in West End streets for several hours. The meetings were concentrated around six platforms, which were widely separated. Mr Saklatvala and Mr Tom Mann were among the speakers. The most serious trouble occurred at Marble Arch, where Lord Trenchard had stationed parties of special constables. The marchers became angry at their presence and began a threatening rush towards the specials and there were a number of ugly episodes, resulting in 23 being injured in clashes between the police and unemployed, including one policeman who was seriously injured by a bar of iron. In other cases the rioters broke windows in Oxford Street shops, using building bricks and lumps of coal from an overturned coal cart. Apart from a few broken heads the worst result was the frightening of women shoppers, who unexpectedly found themselves involved in a riot,

in which mounted police cleared the streets by walking their horses along the pavements, where a number ol innocent persons were knocked down, necessitating the use of ambulances. Inside the Park further trouble developed in Rotten Row, where a party of angry Communists seized handfuls of mud and gravel and flung them at the mounted police. The police drew their batons and dispersed them. By 5.15 p.m. all the columns of hungerstrikers had left the Park and marched to the suburbs, where they were billeted in the houses of sympathisers. Many were obviously suffering from extreme fatigue and their leaders tried to cheer them by singing songs.