INCIDENT AT BURIAL

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 89, 9 January 1935, Page 11

INCIDENT AT BURIAL

Soviet Ensign Unfurled

FATHER’S WISH IGNORED

By Telegraph—Press Association

Christclwcli, January 8.

When the funeral of a man who had been a patient at the Christchurch Hospital for two years took place at the Bromley Cemetery yesterday, the relatives were surprised to see a number of strangers present, wearing red buttonholes. After the miSsioner had conducted the usual burial service, as arranged, one of the strangers, who were evidently all Communists, unfurled a red bannerette, bearing the Soviet insignia of the hammer and sickle. The Communists dedicated the bannerette over the grave to “Our late comrade,” and then sang “The Red Flag.” This over, the sexton completed the burial.

The relatives were extremely distressed by the Communist demonstration, ns they had wished the service to be private. They state that the dead man had renounced .Communist principles before he died, and his father had declined permission for the Communist ceremony at the graveside.