THEORY OF POLICE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 85, 11 April 1945, Page 7

THEORY OF POLICE

SYDNEY GASSING TRAGEDY DEATH OF WOMAN AND MEN O.C. SYDNEY, April 6. The police believe that Mrs. Elizabeth Wilson, who caused her own death, and that of two other people; by going into a room in a Potts Point guest house which had been fumigated with cyanide, had seen fumigators, on a previous occasion, place the key under the door before sealing it up. Ray Reid, former professional boxer, %ho helped to rescue the victims, said that when he rushed upstairs to the room he remembered what his uncle, a Canadian V.C. of the last war, had told him about precautions against mustard gas. Reid said: "I shoved a towel in water, rammed it into my mouth, and then went into the room. I don't remember much beyond seeing a woman on the bed and two men on the floor and dragging them out. The room looked yellow, but I couldn't see any fumes, although they seemed to come up in hot waves and strike me on the face. When I inhaled some, it was like a red hot poker going down my throat. Then I really thought I heard the angels sing." There have been nine deaths from cyanide gaSsing in Sydney in the last nine years. The Government has announced that it will legislate to compel fumigators to station guards outside fumigated rooms for a period, but the fumigators say that they will not able able to do this owing to lack of manpower.