PRIME MINISTER HELD UP

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 100, 22 January 1935, Page 10

PRIME MINISTER HELD UP

Relief Workers’ Action STAIRWAY BLOCKED Late Leaving to Farewell Duke By Telegraph.—Press Association. Christchurch, January 21 Claiming that they were hungry ami in immediate need of food, nearly 400 relief workers blocked the stairs of Government Buildings this afternoon when the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon G. W. Forbes, wished to leave after hearing a deputation from the Canterbury unemployed Workers’ Association. The situation was embarrassing for Mr. Forbes, as he was due at Lyttelton to take part in the official farewell to the Duke of Gloucester at Lytt .flton. It was 5 p.m. when he first attempted to leave the building, and he left at 5.40 p.m., accompanied by Inspector Cameron, of the Christchurch police, and Sergeant Harrison. In tlie meantime Mr. Forbes, at the request of the men, had made fruitless attempts to communicate with the Mayor, the deputy-Mayor, and the chairman and members of the Metropolitan Relief Association, but none could be reached by telephone. Mr. Forbes then wrote a letter addressed to the chairman of the association, the effect of which was that there was a crowd of relief workers in Government Buildings who declared they were hungry and in need of immediate relief. He asked the chairman to distribute to the men any food or money available for the relief of distress, as it was the desire of the Government that no person in New Zealand should starve. On this being communicated to the men they made way for Mr. Forbes to go to the lift and leave the building. Then, after a brief meeting at the head of the stairs, they decided to go to Latimer Square while their leaders, armed with the letter, tried to procure rations. The crowd was at till times perfectly orderly and ma.de no menacing gestures, but their mere presence effectively stopped Mr. Forbes from leaving the building. This was the openlydeclared intention of some of those in the crowd. One woman, planting herself at the door of the office in which Mr. Forbes was, said: “I have got kiddies starving at home; he won’t get away unless he does something.” While the crowd was waiting while .Mr. Forbes tried to communicate with the Mayor and others, a party in the crowd sang several verses of the “Red Flag.”