A HOT-BED OF CRIME.

Northern Advocate, 5 December 1916, Page 2

A HOT-BED OF CRIME.

I.W.W. SENTENCES. Australian and N Z. Cable Association. SYDNEY, December ;i. Sentence has been passed on twelve members of the Industrial Workers of the World, who were charged with conspiring to set fire to buildings in Sydney and elsewhere in the State of New South Wales, conspiring by unlaw ful means to procure the release from gaol of Tom Barker, and with inciting sedition. Thomas Glynn, John Hamilton, Donald McPherson, William Beatty, Morris Joseph Fagin, Donald Grant, and William Teen were found guilty on all three counts, and were sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment. Peter Larkin. Thomas Moore, Charles Reeve, and Bernard Besant were convicted on the first and second counts, and were sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment. John Benjamin Kiny., who was found guilty on the third count, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment. Each of the prisoners from the dock, protested his innocence. Mr Justice) Pring, in passing the sentences, denounced the I.W.W. as an association of criminals of the worst type, and a hotbed of crime. He said he hoped strong and drastic measures would be adopted to uproot the association. His Honour sugo f . s ted that the Domain meeting, which was attended by members of the association, should be peremptorily stopped, as they were held for the purpose of recruiting young and ignorant men for the ranks of the association. He hoped the a thorities would use their best endeavours to prevent, the pernicious I.W.W. literature entering the country. King's sentence will commence at the end of the sentence he is now serving for forging bank notes.