CRIMINALS' GUNS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 82, 7 April 1945, Page 6

CRIMINALS' GUNS

Service Weapons In Hands Of Sydney Underworld

If • POLICE FEAR FLARE-UP

Rec. 2.30 p.ni. SYDNEY, this day. Service revolvers have been used in nine murders in New South Wales in the past 12 months, a high police officer said to-day, when urging harsher penalties for persons found in illegal possession of firearms. To-day an amendment to the State law, providing for a fine of £100, or six months' imprisonment, for any person found in the possession of a" sub-machine-gun comes into force, but police officers say the penalty should De at least five years' imprisonment. It was disclosed to-day that the amazing total of 1800 revolvers has been seized by the police in the past year, the majority being service weapons. -Revolvers which, at the beginning of the war, were hard to procure, are now, it is reported, being sold in hotel bars for between £2. and £6. Ammunition is also readily available. A police officer said the guns were falling into the hands of hooligans, who would use them on the slightest provocation. Many sub-machine-guns, as well as pistols, were in the possession of underworld characters. All members of the Police Force, he added, feared a general flare-up in the Sydney underworld at the war's end.

To-day money was plentiful and crooks were driving around in limousines. Most of them were in some way connected with black markets. This profitable racketeering would collapse after the war and the crooks who were now used to having big money would have little regard for human life when they began to feel the pinch.

"Channels through which arms and ammunition reach Sydney's underworld of racketeers, pillagers and thugs should be closed, and no means could be too drastic," comments the Sydney Sun in a leading article to-day. "Given the powers they, seek in this direction, and the backing of heavier penalties, the police can be trusted to keep the city's streets safe for the innocent bystander."