AFTERMATH OF THE EAST END BATTLE

Evening Star, Issue 14497, 23 February 1911, Page 3

AFTERMATH OF THE EAST END BATTLE

TOURISTS IN STEPNEY. [From Gun SrsciAi, Corp.rsvondent.] LONDON, January 15. Sidney street bus become ono of the sights of London. No touiist'e round is complete just now without a, visit to tho "battle ground" in Stepney. Cabinet Ministers,'' ambassadors, society damos have joined in tho rush to tho East End to see tho ruined house where two assassins met their doom. Exchange Buildings, whore three, policomon wero shot, Grove street, whero Morountzeff died, and Gold street, whero explosives- were found in Morouutzeffs lodgings, all have their share of .sightseers. There is not much to seo. One of tho houses in an East End street is like all tho others in its drab and ugly exterior. More interesting is tho cinematograph reproduction of the ' battlo of Stepney" at the picture theatres. There vou can watch the thrilling scene from the safe security of a Iheatro feauteitil. You mk> tho riflemen firing from doorwavs and windows, and tho Home Secretary, in silk hat and fur-lined overcoat, peering round the corner! You see the artillery como dashing up tho street with their cannon, and tho flames and smoke- pouring forth from tho doomed building. Tho enterpriso of tho moving picture' operators has reproduced with faithful realism one of the most extraordinary events London has ever witnessed." No doubt the films will find their way to the Antipodes, so that people 13,000 miles away will see ro-onactod before their own oyes the tragio drama of Sidney street. Meanwhile the interest in the affair hero has been largely transferred to the police hunt for a mysterious individual known as "Peter the Painter," one of Morouutzeffs gang. Peter was at first believed to bo one of the Houndsditch assassins, and when tho police surrounded the house in Sidney street thoy thought Peter was concealed inside. But the dead bodies found in tho ruins are now declared to bo those of Fritz R van's and Joseph Fogcl, and " Peter the Painter' is still at large. The police theory now is that tho three dead men were'the throo assassins of Houndsdiu-h, nn<l that Peter was an accomplice, but did not take part in the shooting. Meanwhile the discoveries of spurious Peters are as numerous as in the caso of Dr Crippen after tho latter disappeared. Tho police patiently investigate hundreds of due? supplied to them, but not ono in a hundred is of any value. In such a tangled mystery it would not be at all surprising to learn that "Peter tho Painter" was merely another narno for one of the dead assassins, and that the hunt for him as a separate identity is just a wild goose chase.

THE STEPNEY "BOMBS." Tin; tragedy of Sidney street, Stepney, whore the two desperate Russian criminaLr lost their lives in a battle with the police, is not without its humorous side. Some of tho newspapers have lost thier heads very badly over the affair. " Bombs Discovered !" was the cr ythat many of them Taised when the police found half a dozen small metal tubes in tho ruins of the house in Sidney street. Imaginative writers were let loose on tho discovery, and they painted in vivid language- tho terrible, designs of the assassins. Thus the ' Daily Telegraph,' for instance-: A day's delay in laying siege to the Anarchists' hiding place aught have enabled the criminals to obtain tho powerful explosives with which to chargo the cases. If they had had tho necessary acids at hand to fill tho tubes there can bn little doubt tluit their murderous inclinations would have prompted them to hurl tho bombs at the houses opposite, from which troops and police were operating to keep down their magazine pistol fire."' Fortunately the lawless rnilians wore not permitted sufficient time to complete their preparations against attack. Tho cases are, made of gunmetal. are very strong, about 6in in length and liu in "diameter. The base of the case •jn flat—like that of a shell—,-ind the end. which tapersslightly, resembelee the bluff nose torpedo. On the nose of each caso there, is a slight projection similar in appearance to the nipple- of muzzleloading sporting guns. It may be as6ii.lied that thus was intended for the percussion cap, which was to ignite tho explosives on impact. The Orsini and Walsall bombs had this nipple. There was a column and a-half of this (sort of tiling, and the ' Express ' and other papers were even more imaginative. Tho anti-climax of the sequel is laughable. It transpires that tho alloged bombs were appliances used in button-making! 'lbis is how the 'Telegraph' dismissed ils "bombs" on tho following day :

Inquiries among wsc engaged in the homo tailoring industry in the neighborhood of Sidney street elicit the fact that appliances corresponding 1o the .shape of the .six metal tubes discovered in the remains of 100 Sidney street, are used in button-making. A relative of the Eleishmann's, who carried on a tailoring business at the hoiiae in question, informed a 'Daily Telegraph' representative yusterday that she had seen tubes in ufo there. They were inserted in u machino for cutting out tin button* and affixing cloth thereto. The tubes were about six inches lonfy but the hollow parte were of diherent diameters to correspond with the sizes of the. buttons required. ■—'The Anarchist's Dream. —

In all tho wild talk about Anarchists in the East End there has been apparent the very vaguest ideas as to what an Anarchist really is. In the public mind, and in the Ixmdon Tress, which really ought to be better informed, Anarchism is invariably associated with bombs, assassin.?, and red ruin. In reality the Anarchist is a mild, dreamy Utopian, whose dream is to eeeuro shelter, food, and clothes for all by the regeneration of our social system; to make life, decent and ploa«ait for all : to open up new horizons of human enterprise ;uid triumph through tho power made possible by human solidarity. Ho paints his I,'topia'in etieh attractive terms that, if ho could satisfy his fellow-men that it was attainable v,"e would all of us, I fancy, become Anarchists forthwith! 1 ran a real Anarchist to earth this week, and got him to give me an outline of his creed. Tho Anarchi6t agrees with the Socialist that tho wealth of tho fow is based on tho poverty of tho many, and that in order to abolish poverty the sourer? and instruments of production must firs' 1.0 socialised. But ho goes much farther than the- Socialist iu the remedies he pronosce. Me- would mako food, clothes,' and dwellings free to all, and I would abolish representative Government. It seems to liim madnftss and stupidity to I have streets of empty houses while families | are homeless or dwelling in hovels; to [ have shops stocked with piles of new clothes while people axe in rags ; to have quantities of food unsold while people are starving. His remedy for this state of affairs is summed up in tho word "expropriation." 'When comes —The Dawn of tho Social Revolution—that distant paradise of the Anarchist's dream—food will be. communised, and its distribution organised by an immense guild of volunteer workers. Communism would gradually be extended to other things—no stint or limit to what tho community possesses in abundance, but equal sharing and dividing of those commoditieswhich are scarce or apt to run short. Thus broad and clothes and milk will be communised, as water is in all big towns to-day. In exchange, the producers of those corrrmoditiee will receive free the neoossariea they l-equire. The country will feed the towns, and the towns would clothe tho countrymen. The wago system will disappear, and "master" and owner become meaningless terms, for a community which is io guarantee tlie neces- i saricii'of life to each and all will be compelled to take possession of what is absolutely needed for production. Capital in all its forms must be " expropriated" and returned to the community. Manufacture for use, not for profit, must, be the watchword. It is a case of producing tho greatest amount of goods iieceasaiy to the well-being of all, with the least possible waste of human energy. The Anarchist regaj'd3 a five-hour-working day, till the

ago of forty-five or fifty, as quito enough to achieve this standard of production, provided that all become producers. Factory, forge, and mino shall bo as healthy and magnificent as the finest laboratories. Work will Iwcome a pleasure and a relaxation in a society of equals, Instead of legislation, free agreements between groups ot free workers. No Parliament, no laws, no police, no rent, no nmstei*, no servants, no poverty, no riches, no war- -eucli is thn Anarchist's dream, it ie only a dream, but it' has attracted some noble minds, and it is not fair to confuse it with the wild crime,? of the bomb, the pistol, and the knife.