May Day Taken Seriously In Germany and In Russia

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 344, 3 May 1928, Page 9

May Day Taken Seriously In Germany and In Russia

Fierce Brawl In Warsaw

(United P.A.—y Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian Press Association.) LONDON, Tuesday. MAY DAY was taken seriously in Germany and in Russia, but it was merely an excuse for a holiday in Paris.

The chief feature of the day at Paris was the entire absence from the streets of taxi-cabs. The riots which the Communists had prophesied failed to materialise, probably owing to the strong force of police on duty. The services of the latter were not required.

In Berlin about 1,500,000 workers absented themselves from work. There were enormous demonstrations by Socialist and Communist organisations, the members of which paraded the streets with bands playing and red flags flying. The keynote of the demonstrations in Vienna was the demand for the release of Bela Kun, the Hungarian Communist. Otherwise the Austrian capital was quiet, thanks to showers of rain and the fact that the Socialist and Communist demonstrations were widely separated.

In Warsaw, the Polish capital, two persons were killed and 50 others were injured in a fight between Communists and Socialists. All the shops in Moscow were closed for 48 hours. Every householder in the Russian city hung out red flags and hawkers • sold red tulips. The celebrations took the form of vast processions o# armed Russians to Red Square. The commander of the Red /.-my took the salute from the top of Lenin’s tomb. Tanks, guns, cavalry and masses of armed workers were seen in procession and squadrons of airplanes manoeuvred overhead, while massed bands played the “Song of the Volga Boatmen.” Many ribald banners were carried caricaturing Sir Austen Chamberlain, British Foreign Secretary.