CLASH IN STREET

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21036, 12 February 1940, Page 8

CLASH IN STREET

MEETING ABANDONED POLICE AND SOLDIERS (Special to Times) AUCKLAND, Monday More than 30 police constables clashed with civilians and soldiers in Quay Street yesterday, when Communists and others attempted to hold their weekly street meeting. The meeting was abandoned after a rush by some of the crowd of 3000 had torn a banner to shreds. Subsequent rushes caused more by excitement than hostility were checked by police in wedge formation. Much of the resentment of the soldiers was due to the circulation of a pamphlet criticising their attitude at previous meetings and referring to soldiers, among other things, as “a black leg clement.” Fifteen minutes before the street meeting was due to commence, soldiers appeared marching in threes. They were of mixed units, and they shouted invitations to soldiers in the crowd to join them. There was a rush to do so. They were halted, and formed in two ranks along Quay Street. Their leader was a noncommissioned officer.

The police arrested a civilian on a charge of assaulting an unknown person, but their tactics were to refrain from making arrests unless necessary. Several policemen were thrown down in the course of struggles, in which wrestling and pushing were general rule rather than hitting.