AT MIDNIGHT
BOYS DEFEND FLA-GS ON SYDNEY BRIDGE FROM SOUVENIR HUNTERS i A STRANGE BATTLE. j SYDNEY, Sunday. The story behind the disappearance of an Australian Flag and the Union Jack from the arch of the Harbour Bridge came to light "when a curlyheaded youth strolled into the Sun' office and described the whole incident. Francis A. James, a pupil of Fort Street High School, told how he and a companion, Harry English, had ob- | tained permission to climb the. arch ] on Saturday, and the thrilling events which followed. "We reached the top of the arch just before midnight," he said. "We were asked to keep an eye on the flags for a few minutes. "A little later about 20 men and three women who were in evening dress came up the arch, and some of the men called out, 'Let's souvenir the flags!' "We didn't have much trouble in keeping them back, as no one would be game to gtart a struggle at that height. English pulled down the Australian flag, which was on his side of the arch, and put it in a manhole in a girder.
A Tug of War. ! "On my side of the arch the men were more determined, but a Boy Scout from Maroubra and I managed to keep them away for a while. j "They kept getting closer, however, and soon it was a tug-of-war for the Union Jack, which tore from its rope. We grabbed the flag and put it in another manhole. ! "The men were still trying to get the flags, but about half -past one we managed to take the flags from the girders, dodge the souvenir hunters, and escape down the southern, side of ■ the arch. "When we reached the bridge roadway we had to fight for the flags again, as some people in the crowd tried to take them from us. j "After a bit of dodging we managed to get the flags to the toll office on the southern approach, where we left them." i 'i 1 1 1 4' ! Both boys are nonchalant about this drama of the Bridge at midnight. An official at the toll station said that the two flags certainly were m the office on Sunday morning, but he had not heard how they got there.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/RMPOST19320407.2.57
Bibliographic details
Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 192, 7 April 1932, Page 6
Word Count
383AT MIDNIGHT Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 192, 7 April 1932, Page 6
Using This Item
NZME is the copyright owner for the Rotorua Morning Post. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of NZME. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in