Cat in the Hat protesters arrested for challenging soldiers to game of hide and seek

Two men have been charged with trespassing after allegedly challenging soldiers to a game of hide and seek while one was dressed as the Cat in the Hat at an army base in central Queensland, Australia. Nick Deane and Shane Anderson were arrested on Tuesday while protesting multi-national joint-military exercise Talisman Sabre at the Shoalwater Bay military training area near Rockhampton.

Marcella Brassett, from Peace Convergence, said Mr Deane sent "about 50" invitations to Deputy Commander and Australian Army Major General Stuart Smith earlier this month to play hide and seek. "The Cat in the Hat went in there to challenge the general to a humorous game of peace, to remind him that war is not a game, pretty much, and that's the message," she said. "He would rather play a game of peace with the general than have the Talisman Sabre war games happen."



A Queensland police spokesman confirmed the men were arrested for trespassing at the base but wouldn't comment on what they were wearing or doing. Since last week, 30,000 personnel from the US, Japan, New Zealand and Australia have been honing their elite army skills in a bid to strengthen defence ties between the three nations. Peace Convergence has been protesting the training exercise at Shoalwater Bay for eight years and carried out about half a dozen protests this year.

"The peace convergence is highlighting the high cost of war exercises and the US-Australian military alliance to taxpayers as well as relations with other countries, drawing Australia into US wars that are constant, that have no end in sight," Ms Brasset said. "$80 million is spent a day on the military. That money should be spent on the Australian people." The men are due to appear before Rockhampton Magistrates Court on Commonwealth trespassing offences.