KU KLUX KLAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 114, 15 May 1924, Page 5

KU KLUX KLAN.

ESPIONAGE AND TORTURE.

INVESTIGATION POSSIBLE.

NEW YORK, May J4.

The committee of the Senate which is I inquiring into the alleged fraudulent election of Senator Mayfield has involved Congress in an investigation of the Ku Klux Klan for the first time since the Klan's modern revival. The proceedings before the committee reached a serious stage when women were ordered to leave the committee room.

One witness told terrible stories of torture, cruelty, and invisible government by the Klan, especially in Texas. A former Klan official described its espionage system, 'by means of which neighbour spied upon neighbour. He said that a few malignant persons wreaked personal vengeance on whites and blacks alike. The latter were subject to unrelenting persecution and intimidation.

This witness also described the intricate by effective political organisation maintained by the Klan, which through military discipline destroyed ,or made candidates for various offices.

Attempts are being made to widen the Senate inquiry into a national investigation of the Klan's methods. There is an agitation also aiming at both political parties adopting an anti-Klan policy at the conventions.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.)