EXCITED CROWDS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 41, 17 January 1938, Page 7

EXCITED CROWDS.

MR DE VALERA ARRIVES. DEMONSTRATION ON STATION. LONDON, Jan. 16. Three thousands excited Irish girls and men with deafening cheers broke through the police cordons and leapt the barriers as the Irish mail train bringing Mr de Valera (President ot Eire) drew into the platfonn at Kuston station. Mr Malcolm MacDonald (Secretary for the Dominions) Mr Humphrey Davies and Mr Chamberlain’s secretary, Mr Dulanty, who were waiting in a reserved area, advanced to receive Mr tie Valera, -tie steeped out of the carriage smilingly, but liardlv had Mr MacDonald shaken hands when the crowd waving the Eire tricolour and shouting, “All or nothing. We want the republic,” tumultuously swept down the platform, knocking down several nien _ and women passengers and dispersing the police, who were desperately struggling with linked arms to maintain a cordon about the arrivals. . Mr de Valera speedily stepped back into the train. Mr MacDonald and those with him followed and slammed the door, about which the crowd surged, hysterically singing the Eire national anthem and other Irish songs. The police vainly appealed to the crowd to clear a pathway to the waiting motor-cars. Meanwhile the blinds along the length of the train, extending nearly a quarter of a mile, were pulled down. The crowd did not suspect this ruse, and Mr de Valera and his party were enabled to walk through the train, alighting at the shadowing far end of the station from where _ they were driven off after an imprisonment of more than half an hour. Crowds waited at the station for more than an hour, believing Mr de Valera was still on the train. Tn the meanwhile they continued their demonstration.