MARTIAL LAW

Hokitika Guardian, 30 July 1932, Page 5

MARTIAL LAW

IN WASHINGTON TROOPS V. BONUS ARMY. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) WASHINGTON, July 28. For th'e first time siiue Lhe American Civil War, .the capital of the" United tstates was to-night under virtual martini law, with i>UJ legxwar army troop:., including infantry, c..valry, and mach-ine-guns, tanks and'engineering detaehmeais weilj patrolling 'cue o.ty, they being apparently prepared to continue an offensive against the ‘‘Bonus’’ expeditionary force, which, to-day, was evicted. One thousand of them were evicted from Federal buildings in the "down town" area., after fighting throughout the day between the police and the veterans, in which one veteran was killed, and two strioudy injured, whilst one policeman was seriously injured. A score of the policemen and veterans, including one women j attached to the army, were s.ightly injured or teargassedi When the Veterans learned that the military were coming to take charge, thuy greeted the news with cheering, and predicted ‘‘Soldie.s won’t molest soldiers 1” Many of them looked forward to a good, old-fnohioned army food ration. Instead, the soldiers, after donning steel helmets and gas masks, proceeded systematica, ly, to evict the veterans, using tear gas bombs freely on the. slightest resistance. On the streets, squadrons of the cavalry repeatedly charged the.' veterans,, slapping them with the flats of their sabres, when they were net moving fast enough. Soon after dark, as some six thousand troop reinforcements were available, in a nearby camp it appeared tha.t Officer MacArthur was prepared to continue the offensive against the veterans’ suburban camp at Anacostia, which is reported to have fallen into complete chaos, all semblance of leadership having disappeared, although an effort is being made to Evacuate the women and children there, which number more than five hundred.

i Later, at midnight, the military threw down a heavy barrage of tear gas, this was sufficient to effect a general evacuation of An-acostia.

By the light of burning shacks, which had been their homes for the past two months, weary and hungry veterans started streaming in all directions, they apparently being completely disorganised. Soldiers are now heavily patrolling all of the levacuated areaw, to .prevent their return. .. A few small efimps remain still Unvisited, although it is understood that tho military will continue to-morrow and will not .stop till the last veteran has left Government property.

It is feared that the preseiwa of the veterans will provoke a serious police problem in the immediate future in the neighbouring States at well as in Washington itself. General Douglas MacArthur, Chief of Staff of the United States Army, was in charge of' the evacuation of the bonus veterans. He expressed the belief on Friday morning that “tbe Government wouid have been threatened” had not President Hoover ordered the troops cat on Thursday. Colonel Patrick Hurley, Secretary of War, ordered, the cavalry from Fort Myer, to be rushed into the city, at a fast pace, 1 saying lie had been informed, by the President that “the civil goveirnmient in the district- of Columbia had reported to him it is unable to maintain law and order.” After bearing the report of Officer George Shi nan It, who said he fired the first shot, Pelham D;. Glassford, Police Chief, said the shooting which killed, was justified. Several police were injured, one Private Scott, being reported to having died from a blow by a flying brick. This report, which could not be verified immediately, aroused tbe police to anger in the minutes before the rioting that led to the shooting. AH the prisoners wit] be turned over to the civil authorities. Colonel Hurley saying: “This brushrils aside the question of martial law.” White House officials said that information ahd come to them from secret service agents that the veterans who led the attack upon the policemen were entirely a Communist group. A statement was made without amplification by one cf he President’s secretaries that the troops arrived ir the troubled area at 4.45 p.m., with orders to clear away the veterans.

Federal troops began setting fme to Anneostia camp of the “Bonus” army late to-night.

BONUS ARMY’S GRIP BROKEN

SEEKING TO REORGANISE.

(Received this clay at 11 a.m.) WASHINGTON, July 29. 'Hie United States army was suit, moned yesterday by President Hoover and had, hv to-dav. s'Hashed the grip held on Washington for months by thousands of veterans, demanding im-

mediate payments for wartime army services.

As mute evidence of the struggle that has lie identical parallel in this country, four scarred areas mark the once popup ’s encampments of the bonus expeditionary force. William Huska, of Chicago, an exsoldier, is dead, and scores are nursing injuries. The troops remained in command, and (lie veterans were <1 riven forth by tear gas, and flaming tor-

dies applied to their crude shelters, Clustered in small groups, or header, from the city, they are seeking to'or* ganise elsewhere. ' I Walter Waters, of Portland '(Oregun), Coinniander-in-Chief of the bonus expeditionary force, was not' at Anaeostia when it was emptied and burned. It was reported that lib had left, tolling some of his followers to meet him in Johnstown (Perinyshtetiiu), earl-

He issued a statement' saying, “No matter what mnv happen from now <m, the bonus expeditionary force will carrv on. We have gone too tar to quit.”