826 Anti-nuclear Zealots Arrested

Press, Volume C, Issue 29501, 1 May 1961, Page 13

826 Anti-nuclear Zealots Arrested

Press Association— Copynqnt) LONDON, April 30. A total of 826 demonstrators against nuclear weapons were arrested in Whitehall yesterday. It was the biggest mass arrest in Britain’s history, newspapers reported.

Later, more than half of them appeared at a special sitting of the Bow Street Police Court and were fined between 10s and £2 each for obstruction. The 2500-strong demonstration was organised by the “Committee of 100,” the anti-nuclear civil disobedience group ied by Earl (Bertrand, Russell.

Their aim was a sit-down strike outside the Houses of Parliament But at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, a few hundred yards from their goal, the demonstrators were halted by police. So most ot them sat down where they were—in the middle of the street just a few yards from the entrance to Scotland Yard. Traffic down the busy street slowed to a erawl. Three times police told them to move to the pavement. They refused. More police were sum-

moned, until they numbered more than the demonstrators. Then came the arrests.

Many of those detained “went limp” on the instructions of their leaders and had to be carried by police to a convoy of "Black Marias,” vans and lorries which took them to police stations.

Some refused to pay their fines and were given seven days to do so. Five pleaded not guilty. Of these, one was fined and the rest were re-

manded on bail. Two members of the “Committee of 100.” the Rev. Michael Scott and the playwright. Arnold Wesker, were among those who refused to pay fines of £l. An absentee from the demonstration was Lord Russell, aged 88. who led a comparatively uneventful sit-down in February. He is confined to his home with shingles.