The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-11-02
JOBLESS LOOT
IN LONDON AS
RIOTS GO ON
Days of Sporadic Trouble
Climaxed When Police
Battle MobS.
STATE OF SEMI-SIEGE
Fight for Hours in Area
Near Parliament; Many
Are Injured.
BY HERBERT MOORE
United Press STAFF Correspondent

LONDON. Nov. 2.-London was in
a state of semi-siege today. with
seething mobs of unemployed
threatening outbreaks in all quar-
tiers of the capital.
Days of sporadic rioting reached
climax Tuesday night with fight
ing between police and UNEMPLOYED
in Parliament square, Trafalgar
square and other important CEN
tiers.
Looting was started on a small
scale in South London.
Thirty or more persons were es-
timated to have been injured in the
fighting, and many arrests were
made.
One detective who was attacked
by crowd in Princes street was in
Jured severely about the head and
taken to a hospital.
Mounted and foot police fought
with the demonstrators in the re-
gion around parliament and the
government buildings for several
hours before comparative order was
restored at midnight.
Reopen Thames Bridge
Fairly normal conditions were re-
stored at that hour in Whitehall,
where the government offices are
located, in Parliament square and
Victoria street, where the rioting
centered.
Westminster bridge, crossing the
1names near parliament, was
opened to traffic after three hours
OF siege, during which traffic was
detoured, and only pedestrians able
10 prove bona fide business were
allowed to circulate.
The house of commons arose at
ll;O2 p. M, the leaders of the hun
ger marcherS having been unable
TO present their petition for relief.
Inc rlotlng centered in the mile
area from Trafalgar square to the
mouse of commons on the Thames.
along Whitehall and to Hyde park
Mounted police galloped around
trafalgar square as late as mid
night, welding batons, and ruth
lessly clearing away the thousands
gathered there.
MObs Are Dispersed
Most of the rioters had scattered
earlier toward Piccadilly Circus and
Leicester square, where they min
gled with the crowds emerging from
theaterS and clubs.
Several unemployed, who tried to
attack men and women in evening
clothes, were arrested.
Mobs of several thousands which
mad gathered on the south side of
the Thames were dispersed before
II p. m.
Authorities admitted that for
Two hours the situation was the
most serious since the general
strike of 1926, and that only the
most energetic police action pre-
vented major conflicts.
Many windows were smashed dur
ing the night, including even some
in the Strand, which almost COR
responds to New York's Broadway.
Windows were smashed in the
Char1ng cross poStof1ce, in the
nerve center of London, and in
Cockspur street.
Throngs Turn to LOoting
In South London, store windows
were broken open and clothing and
other articles stolen. Police de-
tachments were concentrated there
to prevent extensive looting.
During the height of the excite
ment, the gates Of the Admiralty
arch, leading toward Buckingham
palace, were closed to prevent any
possible attack on the home of the
royal family.
The start of the main rioting &C.
CURED in Parliament square, where
$4,000 demonstrators and spectators
were gathered.
Several thousand demonstrators
from Peckham and Deptford, sing
ing the 'Marseillaise, surged toward
the square.
Jobless Leader Is Held
The police, in a solid blue line.
pushed the crown down Whitehall
from Parliament square into Ira
falgar square, where the latter
trouble started.
The retreating mob caused a
minor disturbance at the Cenotaph.
Britain's monument to the war dead
in Whitehall
Some Of the crowd resisted the
pushing Of the police, and the
latter drew their batons, clubbing
all within reach.
The wreath at the foot Of the
Cenotaph, dedicated, to the slain,
was trampled in the melee.
The original leader of the hunger
marchers, w. A. L. Harrington.
vroc