Wednesday pm

First reports of the Russian invasion from the NZBC. The "Evening Post" features [he story on its front page. Students gather outside the Russian Embassy in Messines Road at 6 p.m. An NZBC television team arrives at 6.30 and we render our anthem ("Stalin's body lies a'mouldering in the grave but his troops go marching on") in picturesque postures — publicity whores all. Gager. Logan and Wilde activate. We meet Pornography, the First Secretary, and present a hastily drawn-up petition. It reads: "We. the undersigned students of Victoria University, protest against the action of Warsaw Pact troops in invading the territory of Czechoslovakia". There arc about 30 signatures to this first edition—including that of Imre Nagy, who was there in spirit.

We leave at about 7.30 (shortly after the press). Later in the evening a spontaneous demonstration takes place at the Embassy in the course of which a Russian car drives over a constable's foot. (The police tell the "Dominion" — presumably on instructions from the Minister of Police—that the policeman has a "grazed hand".) The police friendship campaign escalates alarmingly. The slogan "Fascist Pigs" is out according to the police. "Porcine Fascists' is O.K.