CABLE NEWS. [BY ELECTIEC TELAGRAPH.-COPYRIGHT.] RIOTS AT PORTSMOUTH.

Evening Post, Volume LXXII, Issue 111, 7 November 1906, Page 7

CABLE NEWS. [BY ELECTIEC TELAGRAPH.-COPYRIGHT.]

RIOTS AT PORTSMOUTH.

FRESH DISTURBANCES. OFFICERS ASSAULTED AND PROPERTY DETROYED. STOKERS BEHAVE LIKE MADMEN. CAUSE OF THE TROUBLE. [rSESS ASSOCIATION. I (Received November 7, 8.13 a.m.) LONDON, 6th November. There was a fr6sh disturbance among tho stokers at tha Portsmouth naval barracks. Tho riot wus followed by the imposition of stringent precautions, especially in connection with tho supervision of men returning from leave. The windows in the officers' quarters Were smashed, and tho officers assaulted. Several policemen were also badly hmt. Largo bodies of armed sailors arid marines succeeded in arresting hundreds of men Tho stokcra inside the barracks, failing to escape, behaved like madmen, smashing the furniture and electric fittings. It seems that the first troublo was causod by an officer keeping the men on parado an unnecessarily long time during a deluge of raih. Tho men at last bolted for shelter without waiting to bo dismissed. The officer thereupon ordered a parado in the gymnasium, and, hearing some insulting remarks from the stokers, ordered tho front rank to kneel in order to sec the rear ranks. The men at first refused, and the order was repeated. All knelt except two. Ono of these declared that he would bend his knee to God alone. An attempt was made by the men to leavo the barracks, but it was frus* tratcd. Commodore Stafford released the arrested stokers, and, after an enquiry, announced that the matter would be dropped.