The Fascists marched in London yesterday - but away from the East End, not through it. Their proposed procession through the heart of the Jewish quarter - which had caused strong protests to be made to the Home Secretary and had created a tense situation in the East End - was stopped by the police when it was on the point of setting out and it went, instead, along the Embankment.
There were extraordinary scenes in the East End long before the procession was due to start. Tremendous crowds fathered along the whole route of the proposed procession, and there were frequent clashes, in which the police had to draw their truncheons, shop windows were broken, many people suffered injury, and many arrests were made.
The excitement in the East End continued long after the Fascist procession had been abandoned, and both the Communists and the Fascists held meeting last night.
Statement by the police
It was learned early this morning that 84 arrests were made during the day. The reason for stopping the procession was explained in the following official statement issued at Scotland Yard:-
A Fascist assembly was held in the East End to-day, and largely owing to one of the finest days of the year, many people were attracted to it, including a large number of women and children.
Prior to the arrival of Sir Oswald Mosley disorder broke out among those who had collected to oppose the Fascist marches, and resulted in a number of arrests.
In view of the very large crowds, the Commissioner of the Police for the Metropolis decided that the procession through the East End should not be permitted owing to the great likelihood of further breaches of the peace.
The Fascists' procession, therefore, was escorted by the police along the Embankment to the Temple Station, where it dispersed. A portion of it reformed and caused minor disorders in Trafalgar Square and the Strand.
Crowd "thoroughly roused"
Councillor Mrs H. Roberts, Mayor of Stepney, told a reporter last evening that she had never seen the people of the East End so thoroughly roused and angry. Every avenue to the Aldgate was blocked by huge crowds of people - Christain and Jew. "I understand," she said, "that many people have been hurt, and I cannot but think that all this could have been avoided had the Home Office and the Commissioner of the Police done before the march what they were compelled to do during the march."
It is not known definitely how many people were injured in the clashes. Fifteen, including men, girls, and a boy of 14, were treated at the London Hospital. Two of the girls had their hands trampled on in a stampede. Dozens of others received slight injuries through falling or being crushed were treated by some five hundred St. John Ambulance men on duty.
Sir Oswald Mosley's new uiform
Sir Oswald Mosley, who usually appears hatless and wearing a high-collared black shirt and leather waist-belt, wore the new Fascist uniform yesterday - a black military-cut jacket, grey riding breeches, and jackboots. He had a black peaked military hat and a red arm band. Many of the Fascists on parade wore a similar uniform.
Streets packed with people
The streets leading to Royal Mint Street, where the Blackshirt procession was formed, were packed with people.
It is estimated that the crowd had been drafted to district mingled with the spectators and kept them moving along the pavements, and other officers assembled at various points, in alley-ways and in shop doorways.
As two heavy police vans drew up at the end of the street there was a scuttle and men and women scurried from the road, followed by the police with drawn truncheons. Some of the fleeing people fell on the pavement in the rush to get away.
A number of men were left lying in the roadway after the police charge and ambulance men when to their assistance. Barriers were thrown across the road and Communists were not allowed to approach the spot where the Fascist procession was forming.
Police Reinforcements
Royal Mint Street itself presented an extraordinary sight as the contingents of Fascists arrived, and great crowds, booing, singing, and shouting "Rats," were held back by strong forces of police. The crowds rapidly became more noisy and more demonstrative, and reinforcements of police were summoned by a police wireless car which was stationed on Royal Mint Street.
By this time missiles were being thrown at the various detachments of Blackshirts, many of whom arrived in motorcars in which wire-netting took the place of windows. A Blackshire band emerged from a car which was thus equipped.
The Communists and I.L.P. had arranged a counter-demonstration at Aldgate and Cable Street. So great were the crowds that had assembled for this purpose at Whitechapel High Street and Leman Street that all the traffic was held up. Every time a bus or tram load of policemen arrived they were greeted with ironical cheering, booing and the Communist salute.
The police experience great difficult in clearing the roadway, and both mounted and foot police used their truncheons. There were several arrests, and the pressure of the crowds on the pavements broke a number of shop windows. While the struggle was at its height a man carried two more red flags to the top of a lamp-standard on which one was already fluttering.
There was a last-minute effort to get the authorities to intervene. Mr. Fenner Brockway, secretary of the I.L.P., telephoned from Aldgate to the Home Office at 3.30 p.m. appealing for a decision either to stop the Fascist procession or to divert it.
"I told the Home Office," Mr. Brockway said to a reporter, "that if they did not stop or at least divert the procession theirs would be the responsibility. It may be serious."
Police Decision
But by this time, in Royal Mint Street, the police had already decided to stop the procession.
Almost immediately after he arrived at the parade Sir Oswald Mosely pushed through the ranks of waiting Fascists into a side street, where Sir Philip Game, Commissioner of Police, and other high police officials were waiting. Sir Oswald had a few minutes' conversation with Sir Philip, after which he returned to the Fascists and called some of his senior officers to him.
Rumour spread that the parade had been abandoned, and at once uproar broke out among the Fascists. Some others shouted "We want free speech!" and others booed the police.
It had been arranged that the parade at Royal Mint Street should be split into four sections and should march to places in the East End and there hold separate meetings. These meetings were prohibited, and it was arranged that the whole procession should march to the Victoria Embankment.
Before the decision there had been some delay and confusion on Royal Mint Street. Sir Oswald Mosley did not appear on parade until nearly half-past three and by that time Blackshirts had been waiting for nearly an hour and a half for him.
Sir Oswald first motored down the procession, which was nearly half a mile long, being driven in an open car and escorted by Blackshirts on motor-cycles. Then he walked along the whole length of the parade, and section after section of the Blackshirts cheered and saluted him.
Onlookers turned back
When it became known that the meetings were to be abandoned, the procession started off in a westerly direction. A dozen mounted police rode ahead, followed by a drum-and-bagpipe band, and at intervals along the procession there were other Fascist bands.
The route taken was through Great Tower Street and Byford Street to Eastcheap, and down Queen Victoria Street to the Embankment. Half-way along the Embankment the police adopted a clever ruse to stop the crowds from passing farther west. Although the procession had passed through almost deserted streets, many hundreds of people walked with it. Along the Embankment, however, a large force of constables suddenly appeared from behind trams and from a side turning and separated the procession from onlookers.
By the time the Fascists got near Westminster Bridge, however, a great crowd had come down from the Strand and from the east and west ends of the Embankment. Many of the police had been dismissed when a scuffle took place, but as soon as the trouble started scores of them rushed back, and in a few minutes everything was comparatively quiet again.
Many of the Fascists afterwards marched to their headquarter, where Sir Oswald Mosley appeared at an upper window and was greeted with cheering and salutes by the Fascists in the streets below.
Street barricaded
Meanwhile there had been lively scenes in Stepney. In Leman Street police drew their truncheons and charged when a section of the crowd attempted to rescue a man who was being escorted by a policeman. Stones and other missiles were thrown and a bag of pepper was burst in front of the policeman's horse.
In Cable Street a crowd seized materials from a builder's yard and began to construct a barricade. They used corrugated iron, barrels, coal, and glass to construct a barrier, even pulling up paving-stones. When the police intervened they were greeted with a shower of stones, and reinforcements had to bs sent and a charge made before order could be restored and the barricade removed.
Rival meetings
Both the Communists and the Fascists held meetings in the East End last night. There was a Communist demonstration at Shoreditch Town Hall, while the Blackshirts held and open-air meeting in Pitfield Street, a short distance away. The Town Hall was packed, and loudspeakers were erected in Hoxton Square, so that the speeches could be heard by an overflow crowd.
The Town Hall doors were guarded by a strong force of police, and the crowd in Hoxton Square was almost surrounded by uniformed constables. In several side streets omnibuses which had carried contingents of police to the district were parked, and there were groups of policemen in every side street and alley.
The Fascist meeting was also surrounded by a strong force of police and when the meeting concluded the Blackshirts were escorted to their headquarters in Shoreditch.
