CRIMINALS AT BAY. THE HOUNDSDITCH AFFRAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 21, 26 January 1911, Page 8

CRIMINALS AT BAY. THE HOUNDSDITCH AFFRAY.

* SHOOTING OF POLICE. ] JN A DARK .THOROUGHFARE. The R-M.S. Malwa, which arrived at Premantle laefc week, brought the fol.lowing account (under date London, 25rd December) of the affray at Hounds- :—: — \ Almost certahriy, in the- view of London's best detectives, the aliens who Tshot down five policemen in Hounds"ditch a week ago, were members of the4dentical gang which- .furnished tho two "Anarchist desperadoes ccf the dramatic Tottenham escapade nearly two ,;vears back. „ Houndsditch, a drab thorcsjghfi vce, 'which houses the Jewish wholesale tivde _ih nicknacks, toys, and inferior iewv^lslery, has 3till gloomier lanes and an -shoots from these. It would be ooroDaratively easy for cunning criminals, to get at such wealth as was reputed* -to be ip the shop of the goldsmith, which was the object of the on this occasion. - Some of the older buildings in Londoiu Vare rather more stolidly built, however,. Ithan is the rule nowadays, and the burfor all that they -weie etjuipped /with very modern implements, found it ' to pierce through the party | from No. 11, Exchange Buildings, iihe house they had rented for the pur--pose of their operations. Noises were by the neighbours. The constable 1;on his beat was informed, and he went -to the station to find a force sufficient '.to raid the burglars' stronghold. / A MERCDLESS FHIE. *• In addition to the three sergeants arid Ttwo constables who were shot down, were two plain-clothes constables -in the attacking force. They were theonly men who escaped the merciless fire •of the criminals at bay. The whole ■episode was so sudden in its development that even those officers can givebut a fragmentary account of what took place. . Going bluntly up to the building rented by the aliens, Sergeant Benfley knocked at the door, and was answered ty the man whose death occurred sub- ' eequently in a squalid street in the East -End. The serg-eant said, " Have you ,]j>een working here or knocking about inside?" The main made no answer. ■ Sergeant Benidey "then said, "Do you understand English? If you don't speak it, have you anyone in the house that does? If so*, fetch them up." The man 'inside then closed the door to about 1 an inch opening, and apparently went towards the stairs. Sergeant Bentley than smashed the door open and stood just inside. Somebody rushed from the back of the house, and from a door on the ground floor a hand was thrust forward. A^ the same moment came the flash of a revolver. Another sergeant and one oi the plain-clothes men dashed forward, as Sergeant Bentley reeled into the door.way. Two further flashes came, and the plain-ckrf3ies constable turned, and, in doing so, stumbled $into the gutter. When he got up lie saw SergeantBryant leaning wounded against a walL l A constable named Woodhams was lying injured in the roadway; Sergeant "Tucker, further away, was already in the fJiroes of death, and at the end of the col-de-sac Constable Choate was lying Mealing 00 the footpath. Akeady the perpeteators of aH this havoc had escaped. It is practically certain that the last to grapple with the desperate criminate was Constable Choate. In a moment the repeating revolver of the foremost assassin was ' brought down, and shots were fired clean through the body of the unforkmate policeman time and time again. Eight bnllet wounds were found in the hrave man's body. DRAMATIC INCIDENT. It was while this desperate work was in progress that the most dramatic of the incidents took place. Whilst Constable Choate's antagonist was shooting jnercilessly, his associates were making their escape at the end of the cul-de-sac. - One of them (Moarountzeff) in dashing past, got into the line of fke of the revolver, and received hi his back oni* of the bullets which had already passed through Constable Choate'a body. As he was falling with a pierced lung he was seized by Constable Choate's murderer with one arm, while another member of the gang caught him by; the other arm. The wonder is how this dramatic group of three ever managed to reach the dingy haunt in Grove-street, in the heart of London's East End, without attracting any further notice. AN EPISODIAL SPACE. " * But sensational ac were the happenings in the epkodial space of probably less .than a minute the most dramatic storyhas yet to be told. It is that of Dr. John Scanlan, who was called in to the aid of the dying assassin. Doctors in, the East End of London treat apparently as merely everyday incidents thrilling j experiences which most of us expect to find only in the pages of Conan Doyle, i 'i'vro women, he said, came to his surgery door and called him up by the epeaking tube at half-past three e'elock on Saturday morning, nearly four hours after the terrible scene in Houndsditch. "You're wanted," they cried ; "come at once." "I dressed immediately," said Dr. Seanlan, "and, coming downstairs, opened the street door. Two women were waiting there for me. One said, 'There is a man very bad at 59, Grove-street.' She was the woman who subsequently took me into the house."

The staff of the Marist Brothers in Wellington has been increased by two Brothers who came from Sydney yester- | day. The schools re-open on Monday, j The Thorndon boys -will attend the old j school in Boulcott-street igitil new buildings are erected in Hawkestonestreet, and the boys of the Te Aro and j Newtown parishes will attend the new school in Tasman-street, which is to be , formally opened by his Grace Arch- j bishop .Redwood on Sunday afternoon. The new school is a substantial struc- j ture of brick aird concrete, and contains six commodious class-rooms, headmaster's room, and a large covered way j ' giving access to each classroom, iayatory.°and cloak-room. Special attention has been given to the scholastic requirements cf the pupils and to light 1 and ventilation, and a large shelter shed ,has been erected in the basement. -Che building was designed by Mr. John S. Swan, architect, and Mr. John Moffatt was the contractor for its erection. The Southland Times reports that an automatic signalling alarm, of his own inmriion, is to be offeced to the Government by a Teiddent of Invercaroill. The inventor claims that the device without much expense oowld be erected at all the railway-road crossings in the Dominion, and in view of the recent fatal accident at WaHacetowra he hopes to be able to arrange for the Railway Department to give 4e contrivance a trial. Messrs. J- H . Bethune and Co- announce in our auction cohrame that tomorrow, at 2 p.m., at their rooms, under ■instructions from Ac CoOecfax of Customs, they are hoidfeg * wde of uaclaswd goods. The articles will be on view tn» afteruoon and to-manwOT- morning.