ANTI-WAR MEETING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 February 1940, Page 5

ANTI-WAR MEETING

SPEEDILY BROKEN UP IN AUCKLAND. SOLDIERS & SAILORS RUSH PLATFORM. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND. February 11. In face of organised, though obviously unofficial, opposition from about 100 soldiers and sailors, an attempt by Communists and others to repeat their weekly anti-war meeting in Quay Street this afternoon was frustrated. The only speaker who attempted to address a crowd of about 3000 was overwhelmed in a rush, in which a banner was torn to shreds. Calico strips from the banner were used by soldiers to decorate their hats. Both police and soldiers suffered contusions in the rushes and melees that prevented the speeches. Most of the crowd was present to witness trouble, rather than to cause it, mid, as the Communist front was overborne very early in the proceedings, excitement rather than bad feeling distinguished the rushes that were almost invariably aimless, ending as suddenly as they began. Indeed, in several spirited scrimmages, in which there appeared to be no .“beg pardons.” police. soldiers and sailors, jested together as they struggled. These encounters always ended in cheers by dishevelled soldiers and sailors for the police. As much by their good humour and jests, as by their weighty and scientifically-packed wedges that always split any rush, the police restrained the crowds.