FASCIST CLUB RAID.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20364, 23 July 1934, Page 5

FASCIST CLUB RAID.

Headquarters Looted and Smashed. ROOMS FULL OF GAS. (Special to the ** Star.”) LONDON, June 7. The headquarters of the Gateshead Fascists were raided and “ smashed up ” early on a recent morning while the members were in Edinburgh attending one of Sir Oswald Mosley’s meetings. The raiders left behind in every room placards, on which the words “ Join the Grey Shirts ” were scrawled. The local Grey Shirts, however, denied that they had anything to do with the raid. The premises had been left locked up. When the man in charge returned about two o’clock next morning to prepare a meal for the members, who were returning from Edinburgh by motorcoach, he was unable to get in. The front door was jammed. He obtained the assistance of a constable, and they forced their way in. The constable’s torch revealed a scene of indescribable confusion. Rooms were wrecked, windows smashed, and mattresses torn. The dry canteen had been raided for biscuits and mineral waters. A large picture of Sir Oswald Mosley which was hanging in the hall had been torn down and ripped into small pieces. The hall was like a skittle alley, with empty mineral water bottles standing for skittles. Empty biscuit tins were piled up at the foot of the stairs. The biscuits had been ground into small pieces on the floors. Before leaving, the raiders turned on the gas taps in every room without lighting the gas. A bicycle owned by a Black Shirt who had only just joined the organisation was missing, and also money that had been left in a box in the drv canteen. An old grand piano in the livingror'm had 1 een stuffed with biscuits.