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Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19481, 30 November 1928, Page 15

"We had a unique opportunity of meeting' members of the razor gangs and observing the sequels to their outrages," said Mr t). Solomon, a Dunedin solicitor ou his arrival at Auckland by the Ulimaroa after a trip to Sydney in company with a brother practitioner. "After attending the trial of one notorious character who was sentenced to imprisonment for five years, we were taken through the gaols and shown many of tho men who were concerned in the gang fights." During a pro'wl through Sydney's underworld Mr Solomon was introduced to a notorious gang leader—a powerful criminal person alitv who was a personal friend of tho late "Squizzy" Taylor, a dangerous Australian gunman. "Over a glass of beer this man told me that the money aspect was not always the root cause of the war against society that was carried on by the bigger . men .in the underworld," he said. "He admitted that classhatred was at the bottom of a great deal of it. In many cases the gangsters fight with each other—it is a case of diamond cut diamond—but their activities extend further When fostered by the feeling ■ that they are being looked down on and described as the 'slum-dwellers' and 'lower classes.' Many .of the gangsters have plenty of nionev—more money than the average law-abiding citizen—but class hatred sours them on and causes a great deal of the criminal trouble existing in Australia to-day." v .