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A massive Communist-organized May Day parade in New Delhi was washed out by unseasonal rains, and in Calcutta two rival Communist processions ran into one another en route to separate rallies. In the resulting battle with bamboo staves, homemade explosives and brickbats, 200 were injured.
For all its uncertain purposes elsewhere, May Day is catching on in the Arab world. President Nasser spoke to a workers' rally at Hilwan, outside Cairo. In Syria, the head of state, Dr. Noureddine Atassi, led the Damascus parade and shouted the battle cry against Israel: "Armed struggle is the only means to liberation!" Tiny Lebanon canceled the celebration of May Day because of its current political crisis. But in Yemen, the capital city of San'a witnessed a workers' procession in which women employed by a Chinese-built textile mill marched with the men for the first time in history.
*May 1 was declared a labor holiday by the International Socialist Conference of 1889.