Soviet Consulate Officials Attack Group of Peaceful Jewish Demonstrators

Officials of the Soviet Consulate here attacked a group of peaceful Jewish demonstrators this morning. Thirty Jewish students came to the Consulate to hand in applications for Soviet visas to go to Leningrad and attend the second Leningrad trial now in progress. After they had been there for some 20 minutes, talking to receptionists, a group of Soviet officials, which included the Consul himself, came into the hall and tried to eject the students. A fray started and there was much shouting and pushing, even some direct fighting between the students and the Soviet officials. One of the Russians hit a girl student, and when he was asked whether they did this sort of thing to women in Russia, he said, “Yes, if necessary.” Eventually police arrived and a senior officer told the students that they were on Soviet property and must leave peacefully. They obeyed the police order but soon discovered that one of them, Alan Freeman, a leader of the Universities Committee for Soviet Jewry, was trapped inside. They refused to move on till Freeman appeared. He told the police and the press that the Russians behaved like ruffians, barging in and hitting people, including women, knocking some of them to the ground, while the students were merely having a verbal argument. A van equipped with loudspeakers and slogans on posters toured central London and proclaimed a protest against the second Leningrad trial. The van bore the identification marks of Herut Hatzohar in Great Britain. A spokesman for Herut told the press that they would continue with this form of accepted protest as long as the trial went on.