No Attack

It has been stated that the baton charge was ordered after. Col. P. A. Crous, District Commandant of Cape Town, was attacked by a student or students from behind. I was watching him closely when the action started' and I can say categorically that this is not so.

A consecutive series of close-up pictures of the incident [unclear: reveals] no evidence that Colonel Crous was assaulted before the baton charge was ordered. If he was in fact assaulted at any stage, it must have been alter the action had begun.

At most, the colonel may have been jostled, or bumped by someone before the order was given — but he was certainly not attacked in the full sense of the the word.

This, as I saw it, was how the action started: About 4 p.m., after the students had been standing peacefully and in orderly fashion on the Cathedral steps for some two hours, one of the students, Mr. Dirk Kemp, began addressing [unclear: onliiker] through a portable loud-hailer.

[unclear: Colonel] Crous went up to him, on the steps, and said something that I was unable to hear. Kemp then used the loud-hailer again briefly to say he had been told he would not be allowed to continue using it. He then appeared to be handing the microphone to Colonel Crous and, in doing so, he said: "Perhaps the colonel would like to explain to you why, this is so."

This was the moment of action. As Kemp handed down the microphone to Colonel Crous, saw the colonel reaching up and taking Kemp by the arm, and pulling him down. But Colonel Crous certainly did not give the order for the baton charge. He was in no position at that stage to do so. The police posse was fairly far from him, on the Parliament side of the Cathedral—and anyway he was concerning himself with Kemp in particular and not with the students generally.