ATTACKED BY A MOB.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20251, 10 May 1929, Page 8

ATTACKED BY A MOB.

TIMBER STRIKE INCIDENT.

NON-UNIONISTS WAYLAID,

EMPLOYER FIRES REVOLVER.

A mob of about 30 men made a wild attack in Balmain Road, Leichhardt, Sydney, on May 2, on three motor-cars which were carrying volunteers to -work at the timber yards of Bell and Frazer, Limited, at Rozelle.

Owing to the many previous assaults on free labourers the volunteer workers employed by Bell and Frazer, Limited, have lately been taken to and from work in motor-cars. Three cars, two of which were driven by Mr. Simpson's sons, Lindsay and Raymond, and the third by Mr. C. A. Cruwys, garage proprietor, of Leichhardt, were carrying 12 volunteers to work about 7.15 a.m. when they were ambushed at the corner of two streets.

A volley of bricks, stones, empty bottles, and other missiles was the first warning of the attack which the occupants of the cars received. A bottle, crashing through the windscreen of the rear car, struck Mr. Cruwys on the forehead and temporarily stunned him. The strikers surged forward. Mr. Simpson, who was in the first car, acted promptly. Telling his son to atop the vehicle, he jumped to the roadway, pulled out a revolver, and fired two shots over the heads of the attackers, who were within a few feet of the first two cars. At the sight of the revolver they retreated at once. In less than three minutes after the attack began a police car, carrying a sergeant and four constables, who had been picked up on the way, was on the scene. At sight of the police the mob scattered, but three men were caught and taken to the police station. " I don't know what would have happened if I had not had a revolver with me," said Mr. Simpson when describing the incident. "An assault was certainly intended —the men rushed us in a body, and the leaders were within a few feet of me when I fired. For a few seconds the situation looked very ugly." The attack was evidently very carefully planned. The police inquiries reveal that a man was seen just before the attack began standing at the street intersection, apparently readiDg a newspaper. When the three cars drew abreast the man waved his newspaper, and the attackers, who had been hiding behind the fence of a vacant allotment, burst from cover.