HUNGER MARCH.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20282, 17 April 1934, Page 7

HUNGER MARCH.

London Demonstration Was Peaceful. POLICE PRECAUTIONS. (By Nellie M. Scanlan.) LONDON, March 7. The hunger marchers are with us, and intend to stay ten days. They started their march through wintry England some weeks ago, and so timed it that they converged on London on Saturday afternoon, ready for the mass meeting in Hyde Park on Sunday. There were miners from Wales, farmers from Norfolk, industrial workers from the Midlands, and a varied collection representing the unemployed of England, who had come to demand from Parliament the abolition of the means test—that is. they objected to any questions being asked as to what their income is when applying for relief. They are demanding full union wages all round, or adequate maintenance during unemployment, and that must apply to all. With the best and most honest intention? in the world, a mob is hard to control, and a clash between opposing political faiths does little to improve matters. The two Communist leaders weie arrested when they got to London for utterances before they left Wale*, and hurried off to the town jn which they had offended, and the marchers were deprived of their chief speakers. On Saturday the special constables were called out to relieve police from point duty and take over traffic control. The specials, a voluntary army of civilians, trained for emergency work, and available at any moment of need or crisis, are composed of business and professional men, who undertake this work as a gesture of citizenship. They wear a simple uniform, a navy blue overcoat and a peaked cap. This gives them a mark of authority, and it was amazing to see how efficiently they carried out their work. There were 5000 police in Hyde Park to control the mass demonstration on Sunday, and officers were watching the whole affair from the top of the Marble Arch, from which they surveyed the scene, and with dispatch riders sent out instructions to various points. The marchers were very tired-—too tired to be troublesome, and many fell asleep in the park while the speeches were being made. But they had been kept under strict control by their leaders, and everything was done on both sides to prevent any disturbance or conflict which might discredit their case. London likes peace, and is only irritated and not impressed by disorders. It is the wrong way in England to plead a cause. Elgar’s Passing. - Sir Edward Elgar, Master of the King’s Musick, was buried yesterday in the little Catholic churchyard at Little Malvern. Scarcely twenty people were present, as it was his own request that there should be no fuss or mourning. But at the same hour a requiem mass was celebrated at Worcester Cathedral, where he had once been a choir boy. The “Pie Jeeu Domine” composed by Sir Edward Elgar for this church, was sung by the choir. At the graveside bright sun lasted through the brief service, and then the sky darkened and flakes of snow fell on the oak coffin as it was lowered into the moss-lined grave. As one writer said: “It was as though Nature wished to pay homage to the great composer with a varied symphony of her own making.” The only flowers were a bunch of drffodils, with the message: “From two lows <vf *l,p Srn.nlioi.iP« nnrl ‘Falstaff.* ”