COMMUNISTS’ MARCHES

Hokitika Guardian, 3 August 1931, Page 6

COMMUNISTS’ MARCHES

DISTURBANCES AT CHRISTCHURCH. (By Telegraph —Per Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, August 1. Four men were arrested after fierce clashes between the police and an unauthorised procession of Communists and the unemployed this morning. One policeman was knocked unconscious when he was rushed by- a group at the railway station. It is alleged that lie was knocked on the head. The procession was to have started from the Railway Station at eleven o’clock, and while the crowd waited, Mr A. F. Marshall, one of the leaders, addressed the men. The police ordered the crowd, numbering one thousand, to move on, but the crowd refused. There was then a ll attempt to break up the gathering. In this attempt Sergeant Leclrie pulled from underneath Mr Marshall the chair on which ho was standing. The crowd then commenced to obstruct the police. The police drew their batons. A gang of men rushed Constable Phillips, who fell unconscious when his head came into violent contact with the pavement. The demonstration, it is stated, was the direct outcome of orders from the Communist International (Moscow) for the world-wide “celebrating of a fighting day against war.” Communists arranged and led the actual procession, which went on from the station to the Rank of New Zealand corner, and which included only twenty-five or thirty men, and two or three women. The crowd which followed the procession, however, numbered many hundreds. The scene at the Rank of New Zealand corner, for a time, assumed ugly proportions, but a firm attitude on the part of the police, and prompt arrests quelled the trouble. In a hectic struggle there were two men arrested, and the police were hooted by a small section of the several thousands of persons who had gathered. Batons were drawn. At Victoria Square, where the procession reorganised, one man was taken away to join his fellows at the police station. The arrested men are:—McKechnie, C. F. Riley, Henrv Dodge and George Harris. WELLINGTON PROCESSION. NUMBER FIVE SCHEME CARICATURED. WELLINGTON, August 1. A procession of a small body of Communists, followed -by a few hundred idle and curious citizens, took place td- ; day from the Trades Hall to the steps of the Town Hall, where speeches advocating Communism were made. The processionists carried about a dozen cardboard banners, with scarlet- lettering and red flag embellishment, emblematic of the Workers of the World. The chief exhibit was a black coffin, labelled “Number Five Scheme! The Results of Unemployment! 0 Death Where is Thy Sting!” The police did not interfere. The speakers were afterwards heckled by some members of the crowd. THE SYDNEY PROCESSION. 3000 TAKE PART. SYDNEY, August 2. The Communists’ march through the city streets to the Domain was held today. It passed quietly. The procession of men, women and children, many of whom came from the snburban areas, did not exceed three thousand.* They were carrying banners and bearing extremists devices. The police were reinforced, but they were not called upon. AT MELBOURNE. POLICE USE BATONS. MELBOURNE. August 2. The leaders of the Communist procession here declined to follow the route that was indicated by the police yesterday, to avoid interference with busy' traffic in the streets. A clash followed with the police, whose swinging batons soon induced the processioners to abandon their defiant attitude. AT BRISBANE. BRISBANE, August 2. Two attempts by the Communists to celebrate the international Red Day in the city were frustrated by the police, after two scuffles with the Communists. Several persons, including a woman were arrested.