DANCE RIOT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 288, 9 November 1925, Page 5

DANCE RIOT.

LOYAL CREW TRAPPED BY STRIKERS.

BRUTAL ATTACK ON STEWARDS. ’ SYDNEY, Oct. 26. Mob violence among the striking British seamen broke out in Sydney last night, when an organished attack was made on the Nestor’s stewards, who were attending a dance in Leigh House, Castlereagh street. One of the stewards was terribly battered, and but for the action of two girls in sending for the police patrol, most of them would probably have been in hospital to-day. By some mysterious means the news was spread among the Nestor’s stewards, who have refused to join the strikers, that a dance was being held at Leigh House, for overseas men and women, and that they would have a good time if they went along. Eleven, stewards Einest Barry, Charles Hayworth, W. Rimmer, E. T. Davidson, J. Phillips, J. Repphun, R. Wyper, W. E. Dawson, A. Owens, R. H. Wood and G. Dane—went to the dance, Phillips and Repphun taking two Bondi girls. No sooner had the dance begun than the stewards realised that they were trapped. Close on 30 strikers were dancing in the hall, while 60 were standing at the entrance. This is the story as told by Phillips: “I had been in the hall for half an hour, when a man came up to me and Repphun, and said that we were stewards from the Nestor. We denied this, and said we had been in Sydney for 18 months. “He replied that he knew us, and that we would be mobbed and would be hospital cases before they had done with us. Later, he told us our names, which show 3 we wero being watched by men who knew us. “Other men came round us and called us ‘scabs.’ A couple of barmaids then recognised us, and pointed us out to the other strikers.

“The only way wo could get out was to send for the police, but we were kept from the telephone, and, at la9t, had to send our two young ladies for the police. They got out by saying that they had left us, and did not want to be connected with a brawl. “These girls told a policeman, and the police patrol arrived shortly afterwards. “The strikers told us to come out two at a time, but we moved out under an escort of ten uniformed police and four plain-clothes men.

ATTACKED AND ROBBED

this, however, two of our

smallest fellows, Barry and Hayworth, got nervous and hoped by slipping out without hats, that they could get away, but they were quickly grabbed and punched. “Hayworth, after stopping a few heavy puncehs, got away, but Barry was knocked down and taken to the seamen’s shelter in Harbour street, where he was brutally punched and hit with some hard instrument. ' He was robbed of £6 and his ship’s pass, and they even took his collar and tie. “He is now in the ship’s hospital, and I can hardly recognise him, so badly is his face bruised and cut. “Rimmer was caught by the strikers, who endeavoured to take him to Harbour street, but he successfully protested that he had been here six months. They gave him the benefit of the doubt and let him go after roughly handling him. “Davidson got as far as George street, surrounded by strikers. He offered to pay the fares of two of them to Five Dock to prove that he was not a now arrival by the Nestor. After stopping four hard punches with his head, he was released. “The rest of us managed, with police assistance, to get taxi cabs and reach our ship. “The strikers hurled threats at us all the time and used filthy language. They could not call us ‘scabs’ often enough. “We don’t know what ship the strikers were from, but we have given descriptions of several of them to the police. We were disappointed that the police made no arrests last night. “We are being watched from every point, and now it is impossible for us to go ashore. It means that after a long trip we will have to stay aboard until the Nestor Sails, which will not be for some time yet. We think that we should get more police protection.” Barry, a good-looking boyish fellow, with fair, wavy hair, could hardly speak when interviewed on board the Nestor.

A villainous blow had cut right through his upper lip and knocked a tooth out. HLs eyes were closed, and his face discoloured and puffed from innumerable punches. He confirmed what Phillips had related about the happenings in Harbour street, and added that one striker called out: “Cut their throats.”

The strikers are very bitter against the Nestor’s officers and stewards. Shortly after the vessel arrived last Thursday night one of her engineers, Mr Sunderland, was attacked by nearly a dozen men at the top of the Miller’s Point steps. His lip was cut and his eyes closed.

“ENFORCE THE LAW ”

Commenting on the attack, the

leader of the Opposition, Mr Bavin, stated, this afternoon: “Apparently the spirit of riot and lawlessness which has become so manifest in Queensland and 'Western Australia is beginning to show itself here. “It is natural enough, after recent experiences in those States where Labour Governments are too cowardly or impotent to enforce the law, that the strikers should assume that the Labour Government in this State will prove equally impotent.” * “I sincerely hope that our Government, with all its faults, has not yet fallen to the level of degradation which has been reached by the Labour Governments in the other States, and that it will have the courago to ensure observance of the law.”