SYDNEY WOMEN BURST OPEN WHARF GATES

Chronicle (Levin), 22 March 1947, Page 7

SYDNEY WOMEN BURST OPEN WHARF GATES

FRANTIC FAREWELLS TO U.S. SAILORS Received Friday, 9.50 p.m. SYDNEY, March 21. The police drew their batons to hold back 300 young women who broke open a gate on the wharf from which two of the ships of Admiral Byrd's Antarctic expedition sailed for America. About half an hour before the shipfi sailed the women began to press against the wharf gate which eventually burst open. As scores of screaming women ran through the operiing about six policemen tried to stop them. The police formed a cordon and pressed the women back. As one ship pulled into the stream the gates were again forced, but the police quickly stopped the movement. When the crowd refused to retreat several policemen waved batons over tne neads oi the young women. A third ship which left from a neighbouring wharf was the scene of a more orderly demonstration. The police said the behaviour of the Americans during their week's visit had been exemplary. The United bnates Consular Office said that it knew of no sailor who had failed to report back from leave. The embalmed bodies of two sailors who were killed in a road accident a few hours after they had arrived last Friday were taken aboard the Currituck before she sailed.