LUCKNER’S VISIT TO SYDNEY

Waipawa Mail, Volume LXVI, Issue 97, 25 May 1938, Page 1

LUCKNER’S VISIT TO SYDNEY

ANTI-FACISTS ACTIVE “TOTALITARIAN DESPOTISM.” SYDNEY, May 13. Last Friday evening' a demonstration was organised by several enthusiasts who paraded through the crowded shopping area—the quadrangle formed by George, C'astlereagh, King and Market streets —as a protest against Fascism. There have been several demonstrations of this kind in Sydney during. the past 12 months, occasioned principally by Japan’s aggression in China and by the intervention of Italy and Germany in Spain, and they have usually centred round the Italian and Japanese Consulates. This time the reason or excuse for this anti-Fascist parade was the news that the famous German adventurer Count von Luckner, who left New Zealand on April 28th in his yacht bound for Australia, will arrive in Sydney shortly. WELL KNOWN COMMUNISTS. The feelings of the demonstrators on this subject were indicated clearly and forcibly in leaflets which were distributed in hundreds among the crowd denouncing von Luckner as “a spy and agent of Hitler Fascism,” and one who is, on his own confession, “an enemy of Australia’s democratic principles.” Among the marchers were a number of well-known Communists, but there were many in the parade who have no connection with Communism and who had chosen this rather quaint method of expressing their hostility to all forms of “totalitarian” despotism alien to British traditions. Many of them wore oh their shoulders placards bearing such appeals as “Keep von Luckner out,” “Hitlerism is mass murder,” “Aussies don’t want Fascism,” views which evidently were popular enough to ensure the demonstrators immunity from interference for the greater part of the evening. Keeping in single file the demonstrators mingled with the dense crowds in the shopping centre, and for some time they did nothing that called for the intervention of the police, of whom a strong body had been detailed to keep the crowds moving in this densely congested area. At last in George street, near the Strand Arcade, somebody in the throng took exception to a remark made by one of the demonstrators, and tore the calico placard from his shoulders. This provoked retaliation, and there was every prospect of an exciting “free-for-all” melee when the police charged in, drove the demonstrators away in the direction of Central Station, and arrested two men 'and a woman for “offensive behavior.” SHOPPING CROWDS. The incident created a good deal of excitement at the time, as on Friday evening, which is “shopping night” here, half the population of Sydney seems to be in the streets at once, and a rumor of any sensational incident spreads quickly. Nothing more is likely to come out of this episode, but it was a striking illustration of the strong feeling that

undoubtedly exists in Sydney in regard to “the Dictatorships,” and the manner in which this policy has been carried into effect in recent years. So far as von Luckner is concerned, an influential section of the community regards him simply as a distinguished stranger, who has incidentally given tile world some proof of courage and sportsmanship in the past, and they are prepared to welcome him accordingly. The Royal Empire Society has 'made tentative arrangements for an address by von Luckner under its auspices, but it is understood that the New South Wales Labor Party (intends to lodge a protest against any broadcasting by von Luckner during his stay, and rightly or wrongly, this seems to express the feelings of the majority of people here towards him and the policy, that he is supposed to represent.