RAID ON DANCE IN CANBERRA

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24899, 12 June 1946, Page 7

RAID ON DANCE IN CANBERRA

LIQUOR SEIZED BY POLICE FOREIGN DIPLOMATS PRESENT (Rec. 10.30 p.m.) CANBERRA, June 11 A Victory Night dance attended largely by the heads of foreign legations and their staffs was raided last night by the police, and large quantities of liquor, some belonging to legation officials, were confiscated. The police entered the premises with a search warrant. The fashionable crowd was unaware that the raid was in progress until dancers moved in from the ballroom to discover that all the liquor had been removed from the room in which it had been placed. The police ignored complaints that some of the liquor was private property and removed a quantity of Bourbon whisky in spite of being told that it was the property of the Chilean Minister (Senor Hubner). The function was held at Barton House, which caters largely for diplomatic and semi-official functions. Admission was by invitation only tat half a guinea a head, but it is claimed that a young man who later proved to be a policeman was permitted to attend and later received a bottle of wine. No action against any of the guests is contemplated. By a war-time regulation it is technically an offence for any person to take liquor to a Canberra dance, but this regulation was understood to have been waived since V.P. Day.