第3巻第3章 トラファルガー広場
ハイドバークにおける集会(右写真出典:The Life of Bertrand Russell, by Ronald Clark, c1975)は活気に満ちたものであった。警察は,マイクの使用はハイドパークの公園規則で禁じられているという理由で我々がマイクを使うことを禁止していた。こうした規制はこれまでの多くの集会では看過されていたが,我々の場合には厳重に適用された。我々はマイクを使用することにしようと決意していた。それはひとつには我々の演説を聞いてもらうためにはマイクが必要だろうということがわかっていたからであり,ひとつには我々にだけ公園規則を強制しようとするおかしな不一致を暴露するためであった。我々は,結局は,市民的不服従運動に挺身する組織(に属する身)であった。そこで私は,マイクを使って演説を始めた。警察官がおだやかにいさめた。私は聞き入れず続けた。そうして,その警察官は私からマイクを取り上げた。そこで我々は,集会を一時休会とし,集会を続行するためにトラファルガー広場に向かって行進しようとアナウンスした。こうしたことはすべて我々が計画していたことであり,計画はある程度成功をおさめた。しかし我々の計算になかったのは,集会に集まった群衆がオックスフォード・ストリートを行進していた時に,凄まじく大きな雷が起こり,トラファルガー広場での集会のほとんど終わり頃まで続いたことであった。 |
v.3,chap.3: Trafalgar Square On August 6th, 'Hiroshima Day', the Committee of 100 arranged to have two meetings: a ceremony in the meeting of laying a wreath upon the Cenotaph in Whitehall and, in the afternoon, a meeting for speeches to be made at Marble Arch. The former was carried out with dignity. We wished to remind people of the circumstances of the nuclear bomb at Hiroshima. We also thought that, in commemorating the British dead, We might call attention to the fact that it was up to the living to prevent their deaths from going for nothing. We hoped in the afternoon's speeches to support this point of view. To many people, however, to bracket the deaths at Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the deaths of those who fought the Japanese in the Second War was blasphemous. It is doubtful if many of these same people object to the statue of General Washington or of General Smuts being given places of public honour. The meeting in Hyde Park was a lively one. The police had forbidden us to use microphones as their use was prohibited by Park rules. This ruling had been overlooked in many previous cases, but was firmly held to in our case. We had determined to try to use microphones, partly because we knew that they would be necessary to make ourselves heard, and partly to expose the odd discrepancy in the enforcement of Park rules. We were, after all, an organisation devoted to civil disobedience. I, therefore, started to speak through a microphone. A policeman quietly remonstrated. I persisted. And the microphone was removed by the police. We then adjourned the meeting, announcing that we would march to Trafalgar Square to continue it. All this we had planned, and the plan was carried out with some succecs. What we had not counted on was a thunderstorm of majestic proportions which broke as the crowd moved down Oxford Street and continued throughout most of the meeting in the Square. |
(掲載日:2010.2.21/更新日:2012.6.14)