JAM-TIN BOMBS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 22 October 1928, Page 9

JAM-TIN BOMBS.

STRIKE OUTRAGES. MOTHER’S NIGHT OF TERROR. "SYDNEY, Oct. 4. The men who planned uio bomb outrages in Melbourne last week as part of the watersiders' strike campaign must be creatures without any tense of justice or lair play, ior then* vengeance was directed at the little cinidrdn of certain foremen who had done no more than carry out their instructions in the engagement of free labour. This one act aione will prove costly to the strikers and is bound to alienate a great deal of public sympathy. Of course these outrages have been condemned by union oiticials, but tlie fact remains that bombs were thrown and that little children suhered, and in the light of such things protestations, no matter how genuine, can have little effect on public opinion, except to make the public more determined than ever that the strikers will not rule, and that law and order must prevail. In the iirst instance a bomb completely wrecked a bedroom in the home of Charles Otto Eichorn. During the week Eichorn and his wile had received many threats that their home w'ould be attacked. Eieliorn thought that the attempt would be confined to his motor car,' and he decided on the day before the outrage to move it from his home garage to a place of. satety. He also cautioned his wile to use: extreme care in her movements when he was away at the wharves, and every night she sat at the rear, ot the house with the blinds drawn. She had even taken the precaution to shade the bedroom light. The house was a semidetached cottage in a thickly populated part of South 'Melbourne, and the front- bedroom was a few yards from the street trontage. It was evident that the bombers planned their attack very carefully, ior Eichorn was absent when it took place. He was engaged, on the steamer Marella, which, at the time, was being worked with- free labour. Two men were seen by neighbours to leave a motor car, and one of them carried a small newspaper parcel, which, it is now supposed, contained the bomb. Investigations subsequently showed that the explosives had been placed in a jam tin and had a fuse attached. It was while Mrs. Eichorn was in the rear of the house that the explosion occurred. The bomb was thrown through the window and landed in the room about two feet away from the bed usually occupied by Mr. andi Mrs. Eichorn. The children had been put to bed in this room, and they had a narrow escape from serious injury, and even death. The explosion smashed the end of the double bed and tore a hole in the uoor. At first Mrs. Eichorn was stunned. She soon recovered, only to find that the room was in darkness and reeking with gunpowder. She groped about in the darkness for some minutes before she ' found a candle. The electrical installation had been fused, but Mrs. Eichorn lost no time in reaching the bedroom. There she found her daughter standing in the middle of the ruined bedroom, dazed, and unable to speak. Climbing over the broken bedstead she reached her baby son, lying in his tumbled cot, with blood streaming down the side of his face. She thought. the child had been killed, but in the midst of her distress the child began to cry lustily. Its injury was a deep cut on the bridge of the nose. By the explosion the front window was blown completely out of its frame, and the glass was splintered all over the room. The plaster of the .ceiling had been _ blown down, and the gaping hole in the floor of the room was further evidence of the force of the explosion. While a large body of police were investigating the first explosion they heard a second, which proved to be at the home of Edward O’Connor, another foreman stevedore, who lived about half a mile from Eichorn. In this case O’Connor and his wife and five children were asleep. Mrs. O’Connor and the children were in the front room and they were thrown out of bed by the force of the’ explosion. The bomb used appeared to be similar to that used at Eichorn’s. It was thrown on to a galvanised iron roof, in which a large hole was torn. Bricks from the-chimney which were dislodged fell on the adjoining property. O’Connor’s mother, who lived next door, actually saw the bomb thrown. Although the explosion was sufficient to awaken the whole of the neighbourhood, the damage it did was remarkably slight. This it is considered was due to the primitive nature of its manufacture.