SCENE IN HYDE PARK

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19830, 3 May 1927, Page 9

SCENE IN HYDE PARK

COMMUNISTS CAUSE UPROAR POLICE SKILL Exciting scenes followed the extremely lively meeting of an Anti-Socialist-Union in Hyde Park recently. A band of black-shirted Fascisti had voluntarily acted as a bodyguard round the rostrum, and a Communist section of the great crowd present started to hustle them as they were leaving. At once there was a wild commonlion. The Communists were bg'nt on trouble, and the Fascisti, goaded into retort, halted to return fierce wefrds to the taunts and jeers which assailed them.

It had been no ordinary meeting, for so great was the attendance that it overflowed the recognised accommodation, and Mr A. C. N. Dixey, M.P., the speaker, was stopped by the police and instructed to move into moreopen spaces on the grass. This move Swamped the other gatherings, and from being a large meeting the anti-Socialist affair assumed the proportions of a mass demonstration. All this vast throng, when they saw what looked likely to be a serious fracas, at once made a dash for. it. They stormed pell mell over railings and seats and across enclosures. The Fascisti were brought to a standstill in the open road that' runs by the side of Park-lane. The motor cars became islands in a sea of njeju and women. Many of them were com mandeered by the crowd that poured over the rails and used as grand stands to view the turmoil. The Fascisti, who were not without a mass of supporters, were now in an angry mood. There were hustling and pushing, fierce retorts, and much attitudinising for blows. At any second a mob fight might be developed. Then the first two constables, tearing their way through the crowd, entered the thick of the hurly-burly. Others followed. Even then it did not look as if the affair would end without fisticuffs. Police endeavours to “move on” the mob were not for the moment successful. Blood was up, and the parties seemed anxious for a resort to arms. Moore policemen arrived, and began to take drastic measures to clear the arena. The human vortex swayed and rocked. Helmets could be seen plunging here and there. At one time it looked as if the fight would be with the police. Fortunately there happened to be close at hand one of those narrow footpaths that lead out to Park-lane, The Fascisti were hustled into this path by the police, who behaved with characteristic moderation. The crowd made a dash across the further railings, but the Black Shirts were successfully shepherded into Parklane, and the narrow gateway was barred by the constables, who refused to allow any exit to anybody else. The Fascisti stood hot and angry in the middle of the road, with the crowd inside excited and curious, watching through the tall outer palings. Then an omnibus came along, and the youths unwilling mounted it, and thus departed from the scene.