A large meeting held by the British Empire Union at
the Central Hall, Westminster, on Friday, October 28th, was deliberately broken up by a Communist gang. Lord Derby was to have been the principal speaker, but his voice was drowned in the. uproar. The Communists obtained admission by forged tickets and used " stink bombs" of German manufac- ture. The police did not appear on the scene until the meeting had been abandoned. The Home Secretary, when questioned on the subject in the House of Commons on Tuesday, said that he had not had time to enquire into the matter. He admitted that the Communist gangs included many persons of foreign extraction. Some of the ringleaders at the Central Hall were, indeed; heard to be speaking broken- English. It is a pity that the Home Office should display such indifference to an agitation which is deliberately fostered from Moscow and worked by alien agents in Bolshevik: pay. Things have. come to a pretty pass when a patriotic society cannot hold a meeting in Westminster, a few yards from the Houses of Parliament, without being disturbed by these hired ruffians.
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