THE BERLIN RIOTS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIV, Issue 263, 14 November 1910, Page 3

THE BERLIN RIOTS.

SERIOUS STREET FIGHTING.

ENGLISH JOURNALISTS SABRED. (Post Correspondent.) ■.. • " LONDON, Sept. 30. The riots at Berlin deserve more attention than could be paid to them by cable. Since the troops.shot down the mob before the Palace in 1848, Berlin has known nothing so terribly like a revolution as this week's rioting. All the alarming signs of revolution are present. Shrieking women, with babies in their arms, make their way to the fighting line or raved like bloodthirsty amazons through, the streets. The fact that-an advance guard of women and children was always in front of the sharpshooters who were firing on the troops seems to prove that the outburst was not accidental, but was an organised attack. The dispute started on Monday night in one of the industrial quarters of the city, and it rapidly developed into fierce street-fighting. A firm of coal-merchants in Moabit, one of the north-western districts of the city,

whose workmen have been on strike for some time past, have been employi ing strike breakers in their business. : Much feeling has been aroused, and ! during the last few days the "blacklegs" have received police protection, a half-dozen mounted police accompanying the carts of the firm on their i rounds. ■ : j On Monday crowds collected in the ; streets and proceeded to demonstrate i against the police. Very soon the j authorities were firing on the mob. j ATTACK ON A CHURCH. tj During the night the Church of the Reformation was stormed; Towards midnight the assistant curate was returning to his hostel in a tramcar. 1 A howling mob stopped the car and smashed the windows, and while some were endeavouring to break up the lines, a voice was heard to shout "There's a blooming sky-pilot; have him out!" At once the curate was dragged through a broken window, and a drunken mob of hooligans began to belabor him with sticks. But the curate happened to be an exponent of muscular Christianity. His left fist smashed into a hooligans jawbone and was followed by a quick upper cut. This cleared a space for an instant, and the curate/escaped to his hostel, banged the door upon, his pursuers and called loudly for assistance. The synod happened to be holding a, late sitting. On the approach of the mob the venerable pastors X promptly barricaded aoor, while the howling mob in its onward march smashed the street lamps and the windows of the better-class dwellings. "To the church!" was the cry of■ the ringleaders, and within a few minutes of the arrival of the mob the magnificent stained glass lay in fragments. Then began a battery upon the heavy oaken door with hauasiers and crowbars. "With x the edge strike!" was the command of ther Lieutenant of Police, and a-'swmil company of police hewed their way through the flying mob. But the Moabit quarter is a region where the inhabitants sympathise with the strikers. The rioters stepped into ho^ pitable doorways and came ;out behind the police, attacking them with knives. All down the wide Beussellstrasse, and in the neighboring alleys, the side-fighting went on. Infuriated women poured boling water, upon the police; heavy pewter beer-mugs, flower-pots, and basins were showered from the windows', and from one narrow window in an old home there came a fusilade of shots, whence a workman was rapidly. filling and emptying his revolver at the pursuing police. This was.the signal for the second command—"LoQse revolvers—ready—fire!': 7 SQUADRON CUT OFF. j A squadron of the Charlottenburg police, who has arrived to render assistance, began shooting, but were cut off from their comrades by a howling mob, who bombarded them with volleys of stones. The police scattered and fled. Two of them escaped into a small beer-shop. One of them hid under a bed, having left his uniform in the shop. The crowd swarmed into the place, smashed every bottle, barrel, chair, and jug they could find, and buttered the innkeeper and his wife with such ferocity that they will .scarcely survive. One of the Charlottenburg policemen, from a coign of vantage, fired at the mob until his ammunition was exhausted. He was found this morning pouring with blood on the doorstep of a house. His recovery is regarded as impossible, but unquestionably he must have killed several of his assail: mts. An organised gang, armed with coalshovels, attacked a small warehouse, from which blankets had been lent to the police for their cold all-night bivouac in the streets. The. proprietor had fled on. the approach of the crowd. When he returned in the morning he found the establishment a heap of wreckage.

EXCESSES BY THE WOMEN. The most serious feature of the wrecking has been the fact that the crowd took to indiscriminate looting, especially of the spirit stores. A painful feature too, was the excesses of 3'oung girls and of the worst class of the Berlin female population. The rioters not only attacked blacklegs and police, but they turned their knives on everybody who appeared to be decently dressed. As the rioters* used women and children as a shield, notice was given to the police to use their swords on them also. JOURNALISTS SABRED v Four 'English journalists were the victims of an attack by the police in the Moabit quarter on: Wednesday evening. They were motoring through the strike district, having received' an assurance from a police lieutenant that there was no objection to their doing so. While driving through the Turin Strasse, where the lieutenant had suggested they should go, they stopped the motor to watch the police driving people through the small open space known as the Kleine Tiergarten. Six or eight policemen, who had just been driving a couple of young-girls through the oushes, returned to the pavement where the motor was standing, and were at once ordered by-a plain-clothed police officer to attack the car. Without further parley they rushed at the vehicle, and began slashing ruthlessly at their occupants with their sharpest sabres. Mr Wile (Daily Mail) received a nasty blow on v the head with the flat of a sword, and Dr Shaw (Sunday Times) was struck heavily on the arm, but the force of the blow was broken by the side of the car. .Mr Tower (Daily News), who was sitting on the opposite side of j the car, was also struck an> bruised, ! Reuters correspondent was struck j repeatedly over the right arm and shoulder; both his hands were cut, and the tendon of the middle finger of the right hand was laid bare. Had the blow aimed at Mr Wile been with the edge of the sword, his head would probably have been cut open.

A case of more than ordinary interest was heard at Mercer a few days ago before Mr Scott-Smith. S.M., when a half-caste named Epiha was charged with practising tohungaism i amongst the Maoris in the surroundj ing district. The evidence went to j show that defendant had treated I cases of sickness by holding religious ■ services over them and resorting to - old superstitions practised amongst ; the Maoris. It was proved that his ; moral conduct was not consistent with I his religious services, and that he I had been imposing upon the Maoris. j The magistrate said there was no ' doubt but that defendant was a real 1 bad man. He was convicted, ordered ito come up for FRrHcncp whf>n called j npon, and ordered to pay £11 2s 6d, ! trie cost.; of the prosecution.