ORGY OF ROWDYISM

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 15, 18 January 1924, Page 10

ORGY OF ROWDYISM

IN BRITISH ELECTION

PLOT TO SMASH MEETINGS

COMMUNISTS' ACTIVITY.

1 (UtOlf ODR OWK CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, 4th December.

Election meetings have been characterised by lively scenes, by much heckling, and by a good deal of hooliganism. 'In fionie districts the Communistic element has been so rife that fixtures have had to be abandoned, while many meetings have been broken up in disorder. At Walthamstow last night, Mr. Winston Churchill was rescued by mounted police, and so threatening was the crowd that reinforcement's had to be called up. He had been speaking for the Liberal candidate. As his car got away ■ amid a chorus of angry growls, a brick was hurled through the window, and the mob epat on the car. In Scotland they spat on a Unionist woman candidate, Miss Violet Robertson, and kicked her, so that she was temporarily invalided. The attitude on all such occasions has not beeni one of high spirits, but of calculated; disorder and violence. ' Asking; ,who are these who are behind these disgraceful demonstrations? the "Morning Post" says it is for Mr. Ramsay Macdonald and his colleagues in the direction of the Labour Party's campaign to, find the answer. "It is not enough for them to repudiate such thmgs as are being done in Glasgow, in the East End, in Battersea, and elsewhere. It is for them to stop the dirty work.' If they allow it to 'go on they must accept the discredit. If the fear of that consequence does not move them 'q effective interference, let ftiem reflect that this, organised intimidation and breaking-up of meetings is likely to do their cause a great deal more harm than_ good. We know that among the Bolsheviks, the violent frustration of all the rights of free speech is an elementary principle. Mr. Macdonald, and ' his friends repudiate the Bolsheviks; let them now prove the sincerity of their repudiation, in a practical manner. They have only to pas's the word to put an end'to these disgraceful acts of intimidation, which, if they are not checked, may well go beyond-the kicking of and spitting at women candidates. At any rate, the country has' now an objectlesson'in the state of things that might be expected 'if Labour rules.' " „ THE DOCTRINE OF THE COM- ■ MUNIST. , On the same subject the "Evening News" warns its readers thus: "At North Battersea, Mr. Hogbin (Liberal) has been treated so badly by Communist. eangs that he has had to abandon all his meetings. _It is disgusting that a London election should be dragged to this low level. Mr. Saklatvala, the eminent thinker, who wants North Battersea to send him back to Westminster with his Red Flag, has published a leaflet^-too late—appealing to interrupters not to disturb meetings. But the doctrine for which he stands is something of the same kind-.onr&n infinitely- bigger scale; it preaches the wrecking, not of schoolroom meetings of Liberals, but of the entire State. It would not alone make election oratory impossible; it would take society right back from civilisation to barbarism. In fact, the Communists ,who spoil meetings, who repress opponents in the cause of 'freedom,' are giving the rest of us a mere mild' taste of the fate of. non-Communists in a Bolshevist world. They will neVer get a. majority of the British people on their side. Yet it must never be overlooked that these men have a'very great influence in the Labour Party, and aspire to rule it, and that their activities are not denounced by the superficially more staid spokesmen of Labour. ■If asked, Mr. Macdonald would readily enough and quite sincerely request his extremist followers to cease behaving violently to opponents. But his own programme of confiscation is in its more ambitious way no^ a bit more sane or kindly than their conduct." ■ , Further, as the result of the organised ruffianism of Communists and extremists of the' Labour Party, Mr. Hogbin has had tb place his home at Osterley under police protection, and go about with a revolver in his pocket. i SETTLING DIFFERENCES. Mr. F. M. B. Fisher seems to be having a lively time in the. fight for the Central Division of Newcastle. It is considered pretty certain that the seat will be jheld for Labour by Mr. C. P. Trevelyan. It is thought that probably Mr. Fisher is the only candidate who could cope with him.' When a heckler is persistent, the New Zealander has earnV ed renown by leaving'the platform and pushing down the -hall to wherever the man is. There they have it out, and in a sporting difference of opinion amicably expressed. In Whitechapel and St. George's, where Labour has a straight fight with a Liberal, Mr. J. D. Kiley, .the latter, said: "I have not had one peaceful meeting. The Labour extremists are always present in full force and try to break them up." At Mile End the Conservative candidate has not held one ineeting because of the knowledge that there would be organised efforts to break them up. "It is clear," said a London election agent, "that Labour and Communism are afraid of the common-sense of the electorate, and are out to, stifle free speech at practically any cost. The Communists hope that If,- they make themselves sufficiently objectionable, and even dangerous,* helpers will be scared away from the constituencies where there are Communist candidates, and on polling day we shall be •■ left without facilities to get our supporters to the poll." ' ' THE DARDANELLES. General Sir lan Hamilton sent a telegram to Mr. Winston Churchill with reference to the Dardanelles campaign, which was the subject of some heckling at a meeting in West Leicester. "Neither you nor, your hecklers seem aware of the triumphant vindication of the whole of the Dardanelles Expedition at I the meeting of the Senior Naval and Arrr.y Officers, fully reported in the Journal of the Royal United Services Institution of 1923. The lecturer, Colonel Farmer, took part in the landing operations, and after peace, conducted the Staff Ride of British officers over the ground. The chairman (General Sir G. Milne, ex-Gommandor-m-Chief of the Salonica Expedition, who, after peace, commanded the Constantinople Army of the Black Sea.),said, inter alia: 'One of the great uses of the campaign of which we have heard to-day I realised when I got to Constantinople. The Turks had ' the greatest admiration, and, strangely enough, the greatest love for the British soldier. They understood that they had been thoroughly beaten on the Peninsula, and although we did not get through, their losses had been enorml ous. As Ihe lecturer said, we could not find out what the losses actually were, but one thing we did learn was that these losses were of great help in the other two campaigns, which were so successful in the Near/East —the ctunsaign

in Mesopotamia and the campaign in Palestine.' " '; Sir Robert Home 'has also been subjected to a good deal of rowdyism. At one meeting he was told by a man in the audience that he was "one of thn rotters who should be strung up. ; " Sir Robert, with tightened lips, leaned over the platform and invited the threatening individual to come up and have a try. The latter immediately relapsed into silence. ' . ,- " IF-—• "If I am returned to Westminster," said Lady Terringtoh (Liberal candidate for High Wycombe), "I intend to wear my best clothes when I go there. I shall put on my ospreys and my fur! coat and jriy pearls. 1 do not believe I in a woman politician wearing a dull little frock with a Quakerish collar and keeping all her nicest clothes for social appearances. It is ail humbug. .'■ . • Everyone here knows I live in a large house, and keep men servants, and can afford a motor-car and a fur coat. Every woman would do the same if she could. It is sheer hypocrisy to pretend in public life that you have no nice things, and .to display them openly in your home. I am supported by all the women's organisations. If I am not returned to Parliament -this time I shall not stand again. I shall have fought two elections within a year, and the expense is extremely heavy." ' Lady Terrington is a striking platform personality,- and her frocks are said to have brightened the election.