THE BELFAST RIOTS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LIII, Issue 9435, 6 September 1907, Page 6

THE BELFAST RIOTS.

PARTICULARS BY MAIL. Belfast (says a Mail coitfespondent) i% almost in a state of sioga Police and troops patool the streets, and riots on tho part, of the carters and dockers are of daily occurrence. Tho Gtoike is the citcome of the masters' i«<fujal to recognise the men's unions'. No carter or drayman can follow Ids coiling in Belfast unless he is provided with a red passport signed on behalf of the Joiut Strike Commit/tea by Mr Jamas Lurkin, secretary of the Doctors' Union. Passports are issued only to firms who have conceded tho terms of tho carters and dookcirs on strike, and agreed to abide by their conditions. The most serious feature of the blockade is rfre stoppage of tho coal supply, since it affewts the linen mills, which at present are veTy busy. „ < About three o'clock ihci otlhor morning • a crowd of 150 men made a determined attack on a train of waggons on its way from Whitehouse to the Brookfieild Linen Mills. At the outskirts of Belfast a. band of men suddenly surrounded tho ongine } calling on tho driver, George Shaw, to stop. Instead ot doing so, he increased ' spe^d. ) Some of the strikers then attacked the tirain with stones,' white others sought to disable the engine with hammers. Several' otheis attacked tShio couplings and eventually succeeded in smashing 1/toem. The driver Show was wounded on the forehead with a large stons, "and was also struck on the arm with tihe engine poker, but he stuck manfully to the steeringwheel. On the appearance of 1 the police rhe assailants ion off. - . Meanwhile the locomotive had Teacheu an incline,- and it was then discovered that the brakes were damaged alid refused to act. The engine was broughi to a standstill by driving it .into tihe fflont wall of a hou^e. After the collision the woodwork round the boiler caught fire, and though the fiie brigade extinguished the flames, the -locomotive was wrecked. The' coal in the waggon was scattemed about "the aoad. The police convoy work is being »ystematised. Two large motor waggons imported by the Midland Railway Company and two others belonging to the London and North-Westefcn Railway wore at work the other day delivering goods. Each pair of waggons was accompanied by forty constables, marshalled as a hollow square. It was hopeless for, tho ■ strikers to "hold I them up," so they 'turned their attention to the horse.' waggons, the police convoy in these cases numbering only «?ght per waggon. Wily fcictics wpre adopjtcd. Instead of following the waggons, which, ware driven as a ruAe- by clerka looking very scared the obstmictiocifts won,t .along parallel streets and suddenly appeared in forco when least exp^ted. ,In this way a convoy of several waggons was "held up" in May street. Sn.aller skirmishes wfare faequent. Mobs of women "heldi up" several' waggons and scattered lloacts of' h&y and coal over th* street. In Gxosvenor square packets laid down acr>s* the ?cadway in front of a motor convoy, tine head of one man touching ifop the fept of another. The pleading motor wagg6n had. to como,to a stop, and fie pol ; ce> had \!o pick up the obsfonictionists who made th* msolves as holplecs and heavy as possible. , At the end of Donegal quay a waggon belonging to Messrs John FuJton and Co., loaded with Manchester goods • was stopped coming ibrom ,the docks, the horse unharnessed, the goods tlhjy>wn into the ro&dj and the waggon rushed over tho quay into the ilver. "' , La Highstoeetla waggon carrying machinery frc'm fch'e docks to the foundry of Messrs Mackie;omd Co. was arrested by piokete, tlw^madianery tlm>.vn xsff tho vehicle, and tihe packing cases set on' fire. At the docks it has been found necessary to use wire netting to prevent the imported men working on the steamers' decks from being struck by stones hurled over tlie dock sheds rrcm the railway.