MURDERER'S FATE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15521, 31 January 1914, Page 2 (Supplement)

MURDERER'S FATE.

PROTEST AGAINST HANGING.

SCENES IN MANCHESTER.'

Remarkable demonstrations were indulged in a few weeks ago by thousands of Lancashire 3woiking-class people, as a protest against the execution at Strangeways Prison, Manchester, of Ernest Kelly, a youth of 20, who, with an accomplice, Edward Hiltoß, had been sentenced to death for the brutal murder of a bookseller at Oldham. Hilton was reprieved, and immediately there sprang up a. popular agitation to secure a similar exercise of clemency in the case of Kelly.

Public feeling concerning the fate of this young criminal was excited in Oldham to an extraordinary degree. At the request of a great meeting of townspeople the Mayor of the borough and others hurried to London to make an eleventhhour appeal at the Home Office. The result of their efforts was awaited in the town with intense anxiety.

. Thousands of millhands, male and female, stood about in the streets for hours hoping to hear news of a favourable reply. Their patieuce was severely taxed. It was half-past ten at night before the contents of the final message from London could be announced to the huge crowd which filled the square in front of the Town Hall.

, The telegram was to the effect that the mission of the deputation had ended in failure. Kelly, the Home Secretary had decided, " after the most careful consideration," must pay the full penalty imposed by the law. Great disappointment, not to say resentment, was caused by this intelligence. From the Town Hall was also communicated the official reason \ for Hilton's reprieve. It was a twofold one. From childhood he has been mentally defective, and at date of the committal of the crime lie was not 18. With regard to the latter fact, Sir Edward Troup, permanent secretary to the Home Department, in a letter which he wrote to the Mayor communicating Mr. McKenna's decision, said : "It has long been held to be contrary to public policy for any person under the age of 18 to be executed in England. No such execution has, in fact, taken place in modern times." Desire for Action. These seemed in the eyes of the Home Secretary good and sufficient grounds for his decision. They were rejected with anger by thousands of cotton operatives in Oldham, whose idea of justicerough justice at best— that either both of the criminals should be hanged or both be reprieved. So muoh they told you with emphatic gesture and, perhaps, an oath or two, to show the depth of their indignation. Some of them were seized by the desire for action. They would march to Manchester and "save Kelly." How they proposed to effect their purpose was not clear even to themselves. Nevertheless, to Manchester they went, a band in the first instance about 400 or 500 strong, some armed with stout staves, and others with iron rods which they had hastily secured. Several of their number carried flare-lamps, and altogether they looked a rather wild mob as they marched, shouting and singing, towards the city. They were mostly young folk, of both sexes, and appeared to be without a recognised leader or a definite plan. But that they were capable of mischief was shown* by th« fact that in Oldham itself the windows of Werneth Fire Station were broken, and on the way to Manchester some of the public lamps we*o smashed. The police were already p. in considerable force when the first contingent of demonstrators arrived at Strangeways Prison shortly before dv.e o'clock in the morning, and subsequently reinforcements brought the number on duty la the neighbourhood up to about 200, whilst there were others held _in reserve. They adopted at the outset measures of persuasion rather than of coercion. A strong warning against causing disorder had a satisfactory effect, as many of the crowd were induced to surrender their roughlyimprovised weapons into the hands of the police, who deposited them inside the prison.

Futile Proceedings. Others pursued their way towards the centre of Manchester, their clogs making a great clatter in the otherwise silent Jnd deserted streets. Clearly, they were at a loss what to do. If yon interrogated them, they talked excitedly of sending a telegram to Mr. McKenna — was now after half-past one—or of proceeding to the. house of the Lord Mayor in a faraway suburb. Either proceeding would have been wholly futile.. Meanwhile, as time passed, the crowd in Str&ngewavs was vol! on by fresh arrivals from Oldham, and eventually the police deemed it advisable to clear the street in which is situated the prison entrance This they did without great dif&V cultyin fact, throughout the night they were complete masters of the situation. The execution took place at eight o'clock, and though the crowd had by that time reached great dimensions— chester had contributed largely to the throng, from the rougher element in its teeming population disorder occurred. The police kept the people at some distance from the gaol, and from time to time broke up the crowd when it showed a tendency to mass itself at a particular point. So the public peace was admirably preserved. As for the Oldham demonstrators, after the formal announcement of death had been posted outside the prison, they returned quietly to their own borough., eight miles away.