THE LABOUR RIOTS IN BELGIUM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9178, 19 April 1893, Page 5

THE LABOUR RIOTS IN BELGIUM.

DESPERATE FIGHTING. SEVERAL RIOTERS KILLED.

MANY PERSONS WOUNDED. Press Association.—Electric Telegraph,— Brussels, April 17. There is increased ferment throughout Belgium, and desperate fighting has taken place at Mons and Antwerp. A number of the Civic Guard were wounded, and several strikers were killed, and many wounded. Later. The Belgian strikers now number 50,000. Many have been killed in conflicts with the police and military. Work is at a standstill in Charleroi. The Premier has agreed to accept plural voting as the only means of appeasing the agitators. Brussels, April 18. Violent conflicts have taken place between the civic guard and the rioters at Mons. The troops charged the mob, many of whom were wounded. The strikers retaliated with bricks, and the guards then fired, killing five and wounding many more. A large number were arrested, and the crowd fled, taking the dead with them. Fourteen of the guards were wounded, some mortally. The Antwerp strikers are in sympathy with the agitation respecting the suffrage. They hid behind piles of wood in the docks and stoned the gendarmes, who fired upon them. The civic guard has also been called out in this city. The Belgian Government advocate manhood suffrage, combined with plural voting. If the proposal is rejected the king must intervene. A socialist rioter was arrested at Jolimont with seventeen dynamite car tridges in his possession. The strikers at Mons are maddened by the death of their comrades, and have sworn to avenge them. The Brussels compositors have struck, and the publication of the newspapers has been suspended.