Punctuated by the popping of ancient eggs, spattered with the crimson gore of over-ripe tomatoes, the University of Hawaii’s "anti-war strike" moved swiftly this morning to a bloodless but watery climax.
A little group of serious and earnestly orating students quit their classes at 10 a.m. to demonstrate against war.
Simultaneously an overwhelming force of the "enemy" appeared from various parts of the campus and began to smear the "strike" with glee and gusto while a large audience looked on. Some of the spectators sympathized with the pacifists and some regarded the whole affair as a joke on a sunshiny morning.
The walkout from classes was staged today as part of what has been planned as a nationwide demonstration of students against war. About a half dozen students, backed by a minister and YMCA secretary, represented the striking side. Both of them were spattered with tomatoes in the general barrage "laid down by the opposition."
The opposition numbered about a dozen active students, most of them clad in ROTC uniforms. Spectators, including a number of adults from town, were approximately 200. …
Two student leaders of the strike, Sam Lindley, exchange student from Earlham university, Richmond, Ind., and F. Everett Robinson, exchange from the University of California, were thrown into the university swimming tank by husky ROTC boys.
Rotten eggs and tomatoes filled the air from the moment Lindley opened the meeting on the edge of the old football field, until Acting President Arthur R. Keller remarked tranquilly and smilingly, "I’d appreciate it if the students would go back to their classes."
Struck by a casual egg, and her modish dress somewhat spattered, Mrs. Mary Dillingham Frear, wife of the former governor and herself a university regent, told the opponents of the demonstration, "I don’t mind being hit by a rotten egg for peace. …"
… To show their impartial spirit the students hurled tomatoes at Amos Chun, Star-Bulletin photographer, who had climbed a treed to take a "bird’s eye shot."
Amos’ casualties in the combat are one gaudy green shirt now streaked with crimson juice. But he says it was worth it.
