Echoes of the 1st of May in Vilnia

On the night of 30 April to 1 May, mass searches and arrests among workers and Belarusian activists took place in Vilnia. Among others, searches were carried out at the homes of Citizen Anton Lutskevich, Vice-Chairman of the Belarusian National Committee; Yazep Lahinovich, Secretary of the Bel. Nat. Committee; Mikola Krasinski, a teacher at the Vilnia Belarusian Gymnasium; and others. Arrested were Kepel, chairman of the parents' committee at the Vilnia Bel. Gymnasium and also chairman of the auditing commission of the so-called "Belarusian Civic Assembly," and also a member of that Assembly, the writer Makar Kostsevich, who had earlier been offered the post of editor of a Polish newspaper in the Belarusian language, but had refused it.

In the morning of 1 May a red flag with an inscription in Belarusian was hung on Zamkavaya Hara (Castle Hill).

The single joint celebration of their holiday planned by the workers was wrecked by the Polish Socialist Party (P.P.S.), which demanded that everyone march under the P.P.S. banner. The majority of the workers insisted on marching only under the banners of the workers' class trade unions, without any party insignia.

The P.P.S. announced that the workers should gather for a meeting in the Mяscovaya Hall (Local Hall). But only a part of the workers went there, mostly railwaymen, to a considerable extent people who had come here from Poland to work. The majority of the workers gathered at the Workers' House, from which they set out on a demonstration. At the head of the march they carried the banner of the district commission of the class trade unions, which stand on a class basis, and, of the parties, those of the Polish socialist union "Praca," which split off from the P.P.S., the Jewish "Bund," and the Communist Party of Western Belarus. A group of Belarusian workers drew attention; at its head walked the Chairman of the Bel. Nat. Committee, Member of the Sejm B. Tarashkevich.

During the march the police cut off the rear group at the corner of Mickiewicz Street and Tatarska Street and dispersed it. The march nevertheless went on, quite peacefully. On Vilenska Street a gang of endek students and pupils attacked the demonstrators, throwing stones and sticks. Near house No. 12 some provocateur fired a revolver into the air and himself ran away, so as to give the police the opportunity to disperse the march. It has already been established who he is. When the police appeared, the students and pupils who had been throwing stones began to shout: "Long live the police!" From the windows of the Polish lyceum for girls at house No. 10 on Vilenska Street, the girl pupils spat at the workers.

Because of the repressions by the administration, the speeches planned in the courtyard of the Workers' House did not take place.

The "Skoraya pomach" (ambulance service) gave aid to four workers wounded in the head by stones.

As "A. W." reports, the police arrested about 70 persons on that day.

In connection with the events of 1 May, Ars. Kancheўski, Secretary of the Bel. Central School Council, was arrested a few days ago and released after interrogation.

On the night of 11 to 12 May the police carried out a "check of documents" in the apartments of the teachers of the Vilnia Belarusian Gymnasium and of the elementary schools. This "check" went on from 12 to 4 o'clock at night.

In house No. 7 on Vostra Brama Street all the apartments were likewise searched at night.

It is thought that the latest incidents are connected with the congress of Belarusian members of the Sejm and senators in Vilnia scheduled for 12 May.