MOB VENGEANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 26, 31 January 1934, Page 7

MOB VENGEANCE.

PASSIONS AFLAME.

Sensational Outbreak Against

Foreigners.

£50,000 DAMAGE DONE.

(United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 10.30 a.m.) PERTH, this day. A sensational display of mob vengeance against the foreign community at Kalgoorlie and the adjoining mining town, Boulder City, resulted in the wrecking, looting or burning of three hotels, a wine saloon, a two-storey boardinghouse, a brick clubhouse and 13 shops occupied or owned by foreigners.

The damage is estimated at £50,000. Twenty arrests were made. The cause of the outbreak by the mob was the death, after a disturbance in a hotel, of George Edward Jordan, a married man, aged 29, of Kalgoorlie. Jordan, who was the chief of the South Kalgoorlie Volunteer Fire Brigade, received a severe blow outside the Home from Home Hotel, in Hannan Street, Kalgoorlie, which cost him his life.

Immediately after Jordan's death the police arrested Claudio Mattaboni, aged 34, a barman, on a charge of manslaughter. The trouble commenced after eight o'clock on Monday evening, when about 100 people gathered in front of the Home from Home Hotel. A boy threw a stone through the bar window, the crashing of the glass being a signal for a violent outbreak of lawlessness. The front doors of the hotel were rushed and'broken down. The bar was raided, and furniture and fittings ruthlessly wrecked. Police Lose Control.

The crowd soon increased to 1000 and the police lost control. Then the mob swept from street to street, wrecking, raiding and burning foreign premises and cutting fire hoses.

A wine saloon built of wood and iron, 100 yards away, was the next place raided. Every window was "broken. The furniture was stacked in the centre of the floor and set alight with torches. The place was soon a mass of flames and was reduced to ruins.

When the police attempted to disperse the infuriated crowd they were compelled to retreat owing to flying Lotties and other missiles. One man led the rioters with a cornet, ■which had been stolen during the looting. One foreigner's shop after another was wrecked and looted with the utmost impunity, and fires occurred simultaneously. Half a dozen places in Hannan Street soon became shambles, and splintered glass and looted goods everywhere littered the streets.

Early yesterday morning the mob attacked the newly-erected International Club used by the foreign population. This was soon in ruins. Reflections from the fires illuminated the sky all night.

Having finished with Kalgoorlie the mob seized trams and motor cars and visited Boulder City, where they damaged several shops before they returned to their homes with the proceeds of their looting. No work was done at the mines yesterday. The Miners' Union has demanded the dismissal of all foreigners.

Foreign Population Menaced. Business in Kalgoorlie and Boulder City is at a standstill. There are 2500 mine employees idle, and the situation is still menacing for the foreign population. According to the last census in June, Kalgoorlie has a population of 17,332, of which 94(i9 arc males. Foreigners totalled 729, chiefly Italians, Greeks, Yugoslavs. Germans, Russians and Swedes. Boulder City's population is 5509.

All foreigners, quitted their premises at the time of the rioting, having heard what was about to happen. The majority of them spent the night in the bush. Some returned to town yesterday to survey the debris an'l remains of their shops.