Gagarin May Day Hero In Moscow

Press, Volume C, Issue 29502, 2 May 1961, Page 13

Gagarin May Day Hero In Moscow

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) MOSCOW, May 1.

Major Yuri Gagarin had the place of honour at the May Day parade in Moscow’s Red Square today, standing on the left of Mr Khrushchev,

The young spaceman, surrounded by all the top leaders of Russia, stood firmly to attention and looked on impassively as Marshal Radion Malinovsky, the Soviet Defence Minister, paid tribute to him and said all Russia was proud that he was a Soviet citizen.

Only when the marshal, standing on Mr Khrushchev’s right, passed on to other subjects did Major Gagarin relax slightly.

Marshal Malinovsky made his speech from the top of the tomb of Lenin and Stalin, as thousands of troops gathered in front of him and hundreds of thousands of Muscovites looked on. Millions more throughout Russia and Europe watched the ceremony on television.

The highlight of the parade was a huge model of a spaceship driven into the middle of the square. Squads of girls and boys poured from it dressed in space suits and rushed up to the top of the mausoleum with bunches of flowers.

Major Gagarin and the Soviet leaders were almost mobbed as the children gathered round them offering bouquets. One went to Major Gagarin, another to Mr Khrushebev, and the rest were thrust into the hands of other Soviet leaders.

In Peking, 3.000,000 people,

more than half Peking’s population, turned May Day into a gay holiday as they swarmed into parks and athletic stadiums

For the second successive year, China has given up the idea of big military parades, and the crowds watched traditional dances, acrobats, and sportsmen instead. Warm sunshine bathed rollicking dragon-masked children in highly coloured costumes. and although 20 official slogans dealing with political themes had been issued, they were not in evidence during the morning’s festivities.

Cubans’ today were getting ready for a mammoth May Day celebration that promised to be one of the most boisterous public displays since Dr. Fidel Castro assutned power more than two years ago, the Canadian Press’s Havana correspondent reported. Giant demonstrations, he said, would be held from one end of the island to the other. The biggest was scheduled for Havana, where several hundred thousand people were expected to mass in the public plaza to hear Dr Castro speak tonight. Already the capital was alive with colour and excitement

Cars and trucks drove through flag-bedecked streets last night with horns blowing and the occupants waving and shouting to pedestrians.

Also present were militiamen guarding building entrances. The Cuban Government has not relaxed its alert, claiming that antiCastro forces may try another invasion. Sandbag emplacements guard the en-

trances to important buildings.

On band for the parade were large delegations' from Central and South America and Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union announced yesterday that Dr. Castro had been awarded a Lenin Peace Prize, It was reported yesterday that President Kennedy would be burned in effigy ti the May Day celebration. He will be represented as a statue of liberty dressed in a Ku Klux Klan robe, with a torch of dollars in his right hand, and on his head a crown of cannons topped with a swastika.

Thousands of American sailors and marines from a strong amphibious fleet went ashore at the Guantanamo naval base yesterday for play and relaxation. However, the regular marine detachment increased vigilance along prepared defence positions and along the fence surrounding the base. The United States Navy has called for a normal work schedule today, but many of the base’s 3200 Cuban employees are not expected to appear for work. Cuban workers at the base said they had been subjected to what they called fierce propaganda to attend a May Day rally. The regular marine detachment plus 1500 marines aboard ships of the Atlantic Fleet's Amphibious Squadron 8 put the number of combattrained troops at Guantanamo at 2200

In addition 1500 marines in Amphibious Squadron 2 are in the Caribbean withm easy sailing distance of the base. The Navy insisted that the presence of the marines and ships just as Dr. Castro prepared for his celebration was sheer coincidence.