Filibuster Thwarts Attempts by British Fascists to Hold Anti-semitic Meeting

Anti-fascist groups here have adopted new tactics in an effort to stop the fascist League of Ex-Servicemen from holding meetings in London.

Left-wing groups, including the Commonwealth Party, the Hashemer Hatzair and the Trotzkyites, set up platforms early yesterday on the spot where the fascists have been holding their weekly North London meetings. Speakers addressed the passers-by in relays for several hours. When the fascists arrived, they were forced by police to move to a narrow side street where a large crowd drowned out their speeches. After one hour, the League meeting was disbanded. Another fascist meeting, held earlier in the day at Clapham, was dispersed after ten minutes by the police, following constant heckling by the audience.

Meanwhile, protests by influential groups against the fascist activities continue. A week-end conference of the Welsh-Ex-Servicemen’s Association, at Cardiff, called on the government once and for all to stamp out any suggestion of fascist organization in this country.

Magistrate Blake Rodgers, sitting in North London court today, dismissed charges against Norman Lewis and Harold Shulman, who were charged with using insulting language and with threatening behavior at a fascist meeting last Sunday. In quashing the charges against the two Jewish war veterans, Magistrate Rodgers urged that the meetings be boycotted. He said that free speech must be preserved, but that if the speakers indulge in “villification of the Jewish race,” they must be stopped.