WATERFRONT ASSAULT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15548, 4 March 1914, Page 10

WATERFRONT ASSAULT.

UNION SECRETARY'S STORY.

STRUGGLE IN AN OFFICE.

GRIPPED BY THE THROAT.

POLICE MAKE AN ARREST.

Considerable feeling exists on the waterfront between two sections of the workers, and yesterday afternoon an assault was made upon Mr. Stanley Rickards, the secretary of the new Waterside Workers' Union.

Rickards stated that he was sitting in his office, which is situated in Quay Street, close to the Queen's Wharf, when a man opened the back window of the office, which faces the waterfront, and looked in. "What do you want?" the secretary asked. "I want to see you," replied the man, and the secretary invited him inside. Tha visitor asked in angry tones why he had been rejected by the new union.

" Your application is not in," replied the secretary.

"Yon know very well that it is," said the visitor, who was standing close to where Rickards was sitting. All this time, the secretary was proceeding quietly with his work. "Suddenly," proceeded Rickards, "the visitor clutched me by the throat with both hands, and a desperate struggle ensued. I was at a considerable disadvantage, as I was sitting close up to an open drawer at the table, and besides my assailant was a powerfully-built man."

For a few moments the struggle continued, and Rickards stated that he was fortunate enough to be able to rise from his chair and remove the hands of his aggressor from his throat. "I called out for assistance," proceeded Rickards, "'but my assailant caught hold of my throat again, and in the struggle which took place the table was overturned and its contents went flying in all directions. Then we both fell down. .My assailant was underneath, but he still gripped me by the throat, and I was feeling almost exhausted. To my great relief the door was tnen burst open, and two or three men came in and dragged the man away. Shortly afterwards Sergeant Cowan, of the wharf police, arrived on the scene, but my aggressor had disappeared." Some time after the straggle Rick ards pointed out to Sergeant Cowan a man named D. F. King, and stated that he was the man who committed the assault. King. was. taken into custody by the sergeant, and will be charged with assault.