Sydney Incredulous Over Mellish Siege

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31724, 6 July 1968, Page 13

Sydney Incredulous Over Mellish Siege

(From DAVID BARBER, N.Z.P.A. special correspondent) SYDNEY, July 5. As the saga of the besieged gunman, Wallace Mellish, dragged agonisingly towards the end if its fourth day today, the whole of incredulous Sydney was asking: Why?

Puzzled groups gathered round radio sets and newspapers in offices, shops, and hotels to learn the latest dramatic developments and to discuss the many questions posed.

Mellish, who is 23, has held out in a cottage at Glenfield by saying he will kill his wife, Beryl, and her 12-week-old baby if the police make a move against him. Everyone out of gunshot range has theories on the best way of breaking the siege, and whether or not the action —or inaction—so far will be proved justified. There is sure to be a searching inquiry, it appears, into police tactics when it is all over. '•What a schemozzle!” the “Daily Telegraph” said this morning—and most people agreed. Whether the police action is finally proved right or wrong the facts themselves are astonishing. And the most astonishing of all is that a man described by the Commissioner of Police (Mr Norman Allan) as a dangerous psychopath, a man who has defied 70 heavilyarmed police for four days, a man who has a shotgun, a pistol, and hand grenades, and is said to be in urgent need of medical help, has been given by the police the world’s

most deadly weapon and a supply of ammunition. Wally Mellish today had an armalite rifle described by military experts as the deadliest and most accurate of all weapons. A bullet from it can kill by shock, even if it hits the victim in the hand or foot. The police surrounding the tiny cottage where Mellish is holed up with his bride of two days and her babv, have no answer to the rifle. Its bullets will pierce the steel shields carried by the riot squad as though they were paper. Gunman’s Demands Before the rifle, Mellish demanded and got: Special legal permission to wed his childhood sweetheart, whom he is holding hostage, without the customary seven days notice. The two top policemen in the State to act as witnesses to the bizarre marriage ceremony. A wedding breakfast of curry and rice, rice pudding and cream prepared at a mobile police canteen. Bottles of soft drink delivered personally by the Commissioner of Police.

A transistor radio so that he could hear what police movements were planned. A regular supply of napkins and food for the baby, and coffee provided by policemen turned messenger boys for the crazed gunman. (He sent some coffee back because it was cold, and demanded fresh.)

On top of all this, Mellish won guarantees from the police that they would not continue with the warrant for his arrest that began the trouble on Tuesday, and that they would not charge him with firing shots at them.

But the Commissioner of Police, it is reported, has issued an order: “No more food for Mellish and his wife.” This puts an end to the situation in which the police were producing meals for the couple at a mobile canteen, part of the temporary police headquarters set up in a poultry yard adjacent to the besieged cottage. But Mr Allan said the police would continue sending food into the house for the baby. “We can’t let it starve to death,” he said. The police believe Mellish has enough food in the house to last for three weeks. Although he has twice broken promises to surrender, Mellish was given an undertaking that the police would not try to rush him when he went to sleep last night “We would not consider breaking our word,” said Detective Superintendent D. Fergusson Cosy Sleep

While Mellish slept cosily and safely in the bouse, waiting police shivered out the night in near-freezing temperatures. “A deranged man has made a laughing stock of our police,” the “Daily Telegraph" said in a leading article. All Sydney Is asking: Why don’t they put quick-acting drugs in the food and drink police have sent in? Why don’t they call in a psychiatrist? Why don’t they use tranquillising darts on him? Why didn’t they overpower hiin when he put down his guns to say “I do” at the wedding ceremony? Why don’t they flush him out with tear-gas when he enters rooms in the house by himself?—and a hundred other questions. The police say knock-out drugs would taste, or they wouldn’t act quickly enough. Tranquillising darts are out of the question. Mellish was not overpowered because the Police Commissioner had “given his word.” The police say their greatest concern throughout has been for the safety of Mellish’s girl bride and her baby. This is acknowledged by all, as is the undoubted bravery of Mr Allan, Superintendent Fergusson, and the Rev. Clyde Paton who have faced Mellish unarmed.

Bat, as the “Daily Telegraph” said: "Bravery and headlines are not a substitute for judgment and clear thinking.”