THE BELFAST BUTCHERY.

NZ Truth, Issue 121, 12 October 1907, Page 8

THE BELFAST BUTCHERY.

DETAILS BY THE MAIL.

The Murder of Maggie Lennon.

"Bold, Ball-Dog-Breed Bays" Batter and Bayonet.

,Th'e English" newspapers just ito hand make it clear that the butchery at Belfast was quite without justification. The authorities systematically, with their military— not long returned from the slaughter of men, women and children m South Africa—harried the people of Belfast, and, when flesh and blood, could stand it no more, and the mob threw some brickbats, the soldiers promptly shot a number of persons, who were quite innocent. The affair is thus commented upon by Ernest E. Hunter, m the columns of London "Justice" :—

The ranks are closing up. The shadow of working-class revolt creeps on until it darkens.. tj^p doors of the home of Tory reaction, "the North of Ireland. The bayonets again gleam m an Irish sun, and m the darkened streets of an Irish city is heard once more the crack of the rifles, but how different the circumstances ! It is not the men of Cork or the boys of Wexford, but, the MEN .OF "LOYAL 5 ULSTER" •who are falling before the bullets of privileged law and order to-day. There is not much doubt that the military plan of campaign was deliberately premeditated. On Sunday night more troops were :• requisitioned, and the press informed us that General Dawson. "has made a' motor lour of the disturbed area, and hinted that -.should there be a renewal of serious disturbances, and the military are again attacked. THEY WILL NOT HESITATE TO FIRE." Tlw authorities have kept their word, and Aucuoii 12th. 1907. has been added to the calendar of capitalistic crimes. After deliberately

PROVOKING THE PEOPLE of Belfast to fury they are now trying -to quell the fury of their own creation. We cannot be hard upon the common soldier. ".His riot To reason why." Our duty all the time is to point out to him that his interests are bound up with those of the worker. But until ho realises this he cannot be expected to turn the cheek- to the smiter. The true criminals are those who set worker against worker, and by such means engineer the bloody carnage of Monda"<r night. All through the piece Mr Augustine Birreli and his advisers have taken the side of the mastevs. We are not surprised at this. We do not complain of it. By the very nature of things. Liberalism is bound to defend the INTERESTS OP CAPITALISM. Mr Asquith's solemn assurance to the banking profession that Liberalism would sacredly guard the interests of private property, is the bond which the Government is meeting m Belfast to-day. They have paid it with the blood o£ the Belfast workers. The death-roll is already three— Maggie Lennon, Charles Mullan, . and- Charles Kellyrwhile four are so badly wounded that there is little hope of recovery. Hundreds are wounded m one way or the other, and any moment more deaths may be expected. The men and women who went through the fight are likely to carry its bitter memories to the grave. Agaln and again the crowd were

CHARGED WITH THE BAYONET The "Express'" states that "up and down the small streets the now infuriated soldiers, many of whom had been struck, pursued the rioters, striking them with the butt ends of their rifles." Another pressman says "that m the final charges the 'men who contrived to 'flesh their bayonets' were many" ; while the "Daily Mail" gloatingly writes, "The casualty lists to hand are proof that the soldiers managed to retaliate." .

There seems to have been very little justification for the crowning INFAMY OP BALL CARTRIDGE. The Dragoon Guards seem to have charged down the hill to Fallsroad, for.no particular reason except provocation. The ''Chronicle," although it displays considerable bias against the strikers, cannot accuse them of being anything more than "suspicious" and "sullen" with "scowling faces." Under any circumstances, the bloodshed is the direct consequence of utilising constables and soldiers to break the back of the strike., Official Liberalism, of course, explains that the local authority knows what. is best. But the local authority is. simply voicing the- desires, of a higher p.ower that knows even better: THE SHIPPING FEDERATION is the power behind the throne ! The correspondence between Mr Cuthbert Laws, the secretary of the Federation, and' Mr Birrell, is interesting reading. Never did a responsible Minister so abjectly crawl as does the Irish Secretary to this tool of the capitalist class. The whips of capitalism have forced the trembling cur of Liberalism to heel. The carters and dockers have not been "unreasonable." They are willing to arbitrate, even to compromise, if the employers will meet them fairly and squarely. The " negotiations for a settlement were only broken off after a deliberate breach of good faith on the part of the masters. A square deal is unknown to the capitalist class. Meanwhile Belfast is an armed camp. The Trades Disputes Bill and its vaunted "rights" are dead letters, and sorrow hangs , LIKE A BLACK PALL over the whole community. To the relatives of those who are killed and wounded goes forth all our sympathy. English workman grabs the hand of Irish workman and bids him be of good cheer. For the end is not yet, but this we know, that Monday's .tragedy, i%

not the first, and it Is 'doubtful if it will be the last m the history;- if the British working class.

In another part of the newspaper there is the following : Two at least of those killed— one a young woman, seeking for her boy brother, and the other a young woman going home from work—appear to have been as innocent of participation m any rioting or disorder as if they had been hundreds of miles away. It is idle to suppose that all this was not deliber ■* ately calculated upon when the troops were drafted into Belfast. No Government would send troops ARMED WITH DEADLY WEAPONS

of precision to interfere m! a dispute between capital and labor, except with intent . to provoke disorder, and to "shoot to kill" on the first opportunity. The fact that the troops were withdrawn from the streets on Tuesday night is proof sufficient that they were never real, ly needed .there at all. There has been no evidence to show that there was any danger ol life, or even property, until troops were poured into the city, and its thoroughfares were turned into .an armed camp. And anyone, with a grain of sense knows that to parade a military force under the circumstances obtaining m Belfast is necessarily provocative of violence on both sides. It is like carrying a naked light into a powder magazine. From a long account which is published m "Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper," and which account has been written with a very strong bias against THE BELFAST RIOTERS, we select the following :— Led by Lieutenant Wingfield, the riflemen, with their bayonets, rushed forward at the double, followed by a large body of police, . who had their batons drawn. Up and "down the small streets the ' NOW INFURIATED SOLDIERS, many of whom had been struck, pursued the rioters, striking them with the butt ends of their rifles. A magistrate appeared at one of the shattered windows of the barracks, and, amid a terrible fusilade of stones, read the Riot Act. The mob greeted the reading with loud imprecations. The order to load and fire was given to three men. The order was repeated, and again the -rifles spoke with sinister meaning. One man was shot through the abdomen,, one had his thigh broken by a bullet ; a third was hit m the chest. A woman, who was standing at the back of the crowd, was struck by a bullet, and died soon after she had been taken to the hospital. THE POOR CREATURE was guilty of nothing worse tlian the indiscretion of being abroad on this fatal night. She got into the line of fire while looking for ber young brother.

Wounded police, soldiers and civilians were, being taken to hospital throughout the evening, and by 10 o'clock all the hospitals were crowded with cases. The number of injured by bayonet and bullet wounds, or by blows from the missiles thrown by the crowd, ran into hundreds. The authorities realised that the firing would have only a temporary effect on the temper of the crowd, and during the lull which followed more troops were brought on the scene. There were, however, only minor outbursts, and by midnight all serious rioting was: over. CIVILIAN VICTIMS. The following is a list of the civilian victims of the rioting, so far as it is obtainable :.— KILLED. . Maggie Lennon, single ,woman, aged 22, of 52 Conway-street ; shot through the side. Charles McMullan, '47 Conwaystreet, iron turner ; shot through the lungs ; died 15 minutes later at 144 Ross-street. „ Charles Kelly,, of 43 Norfolkstreet.; WOUNDED, Ernest 'J. McCormick", aged. 17, 21 Leeson-street, fractured thigh. Hugh Delany, 21 Linden-street, gunshot wound. Patrick McKenna, aged 32, 6 Pan-ton-street, gunshot wound to thigh, very dangerously injured, condition precarious. William John. McManus, aged 21', 6 Odessa-street, thigh broken by bullet, seriously injured. Casualties among the soldiers were numerous, most of the wounds being on the head. Two ..privates of the Royal Sussex are suffering from broken noses and cut eyes. They were hit full m the face with half-bricks, flung with terrific force. • TROOPS WITHDRAWN. With the terrible events of Monday fresh m their minds, Belfast residents were astonished when it was announced on Tuesday, that the troops were to be withdrawn from the streets. This was the result of a deputation, consisting of several justices of the peace, wait;- j ing upon the Lord Mayor (the Earl i of Shaftesbury), and pointing out to him the desirability of the step. j The unexpected departure of the military was viewed with wonderment by the entire population m the 'district, and hundreds of men, women and children gathered m the streets to ask the meaning of it< • CHILD KILLED. On Sunday there was two hours' desperate fighting on the Grosvenorroad between a howling crowd and a strong police force, cavalry and infantry, as the result of which a child was killed and 20 policemen seriously injured. The cavalry, dashed from one end

to the other of the scene of disturbance, the crowds falling back* suddenly before them, continuing to throw any missile which came to their hand. Eventually fully 500 police and 1500 soldiers<were on the scene.

Another newspaper, referring to the young woman' who was shot, says : — She was a well-made girl, and good-looking, not more than 20 years of age. The bullet entered her left breast, and came out under her shoulder. She died almost immediately,! Alas ! the pity, of it ! * * .* Further information as 'to the ruffianly outrages perpetrated by the soldiers is given by H. B. Stockman m the "Labor Leader" for August 23. We here quote a portion of Stockman's interesting article : — "GOOD-NATURED SOUL'S.' 1 In the "Clarion" Mr Robert ■Blatchford has been philosophising on our troubles. He tells us that the soldiers concerned m last week's scenes of violence were so many good-natured souls whose only desire was to be m bed. Had Blatchford left his comfortable room and come with, me through the miserable streets m the area that had been ravaged by the peaceful, bed-loving gentlemen m khaki, he might have written m a somewhat different strain. Here are a few of the things I saw, and heard in"my pilgrimage :— LAW AND ORDER PERSONIFIED.

In one narrow and dirty street there was a house left without a window or door. Whilst its inhabitants were sitting quietly by the fireside listening m fear and trembling to the awful sounds outside, a detachment of soldiers and police came up and proceeded to batter m the door and windows. Husband and wife fled m terror ; the former upstairs, the latter to the backyard. The frail thing called a door was broken m splinters ; the window frame was shattered, and through the opening thus made troops anfl police' poured, cursing and swearing. Once within, the minions of law and order proceeded to break pictures and every other breakable thing on the walls. The woman of the house was then dragged from her hiding-place, savagely kicked, and called foul names by the. good-natured young men who only wanted to be m bed. The husband was next dragged downstairs and carried off to the police station as a dangerous rioter. In the room from which he was dragged a child of seven years woke out of its sleep and began to cry ; a burly policeman drew his fist and struck it a violent blow on the head. The marks of that blow may still be seen. 'A SECOND INSTANCE, 'Just opposite this house a scene more terrible was enacted. In the house were three persons— an old woman of 75 and her two sons. One was an invalid, who had been suffering from heart disease for years, and was at that moment- incapable of standing on his feet, let alone taking part m a riot. Soldiers and police, fresh from their glorious work, across the street, came to this house, smashed the door and the windows, entered the house, and arrested the invalid as a rioter. His brother and mother attempted to explain matters. For their pains the man was struck on the head with- a stick, whilst the old woman was violently thrown on the fire, being badly burned. Screaming with pain, she sprang to her feet, only to be hurled back again. The young fellow suffering from heart disease was roughly dragged off under escort to the police station. On arrival there he was found to be so ill that the doctor ordered his immediate removal to hospital, where he lies to-day, his fcfe being despaired of. AND STILL A THIRD.; In the next street lives a quiet, inoffensive man. On the Monday night he was lying m bed, reading an account of the events of the previous night. His wife was peacefully rocking their child m its cradle, and upstairs her sister crouched m mortal terror. Without there was desperate work going on. Soldiers, policemen and civilians were vigorously jtoning each other. . Suddenly the house is surrounded - by police and soldiers. "Come out, you b — Irish swine !'•' yells a hoarse Cockney voice. The women thus politely addressed are too frightened to accept the courteous invitation. There is a steady rain of blows from rifle butts, batons, and bayonets, and m a few moments door and window disappear from their usual places. A group of excited soldiers, yelling for the Irish swine, fills the little kitchen, and the child m its cradle starts to scream with terror. The mother flings herself m front of her child, fearful lest these mad men may do it an injury. Striking out right and left with their rifles and batons, soldiers and police soon break everything they can reach. Alarmed by the noise and screams, the own" er of the house springs out of his bed, and is promptly arrested. Upstairs his terrified sister-in-law looks down into the street, now filled with soldiers. "There's another of the Irish b- !" yells a soldier, and, picking up a large stone, he hurls it through the window, striking the young woman on the arm. HUSTLING IRISH "SWINE." Everywhere one goes m the district one finds similar traces of savage ferocity. One. house was enter 7 ed early m the evening while the" householder was at work. His wife, young son, and daughter, who were the only occupants, were hustled about by a mob of intoxicated soldiers. The house was ransacked from cellar to ceiling for no other reason than that an over-zealous sergeant of the military had taken it into his head that there were "b Irish swine" concealed on the premises. The aforesaid swine not being m evidence, the gentlemen m khaki proceeded to amuse themselves. A broken sewing machine and fragments of delph, glass, china and crockery bear testimony to the vigor with which they swung their rifle butts about their heads.

A battalion of the Empire's defenders were charging through a side street .when a widow, living m

one of the houses with her two sons, aged 13 and 15 respectively, had the audacity to hurriedly slam the door. To the military mind this was conclusive evidence that the house was being used as a shelter for rioters. A score of rifles rained upon the door and window, and m a second or so they were smashed to smithereens, and 10 of Blatchford's heroic comrades dashed upstairs. A vigorous prodding underneath a bed with bayonets resulted m an agonising scream. Here, at last, was one of the murderous ''swine," thought the 16 warriors. The ruffian was dragged forth— a boy of -13. At the moment when his mother had slammed the door, he had crawled under the bed ia sheer terror..

'RIOT OR REVOLUTION.; By deeds like the foregoing did [the soldiers of the King seek to avenge the throwing of a few stones by irresponsible corner boys. Men and women, as peaceable as any to be found m the United Kingdom, endured these organised outrages by the representatives of law and order as long as they could! ■When they could dp so no longer they retaliated. Oh Monday night they defended their own and their neighbors' homes from attack with the only weapons at their command — bottles and stones. The military replied with ball cartridge. When these things happen m Russia they call them revolutions • When they happen m Ireland they, call ithem xiats.

WHO WERE TO BLAME ? However, I think I have said enough to show that the people , were not altogether to blame for the work of last week. The men and women participating m the scenes of last week were not strikers, neither were they the lawless ruffians they were painted m the press. They were typical, law-abid-ing men and women, goaded into violence by the methods I have tried to describe. . It is not true to ; say that they were all Nationalists. Citizens of all creeds and classes ■ were boiling with indignation at the : terrible work of the soldiery, and had the troops not been withdrawn, the consequences would have been disastrous. All day on Tuesday men went round collecting rifles and revolvers and laying m a supply of vitrol m order to be ready for the troops when they returned to their fiendish work. They were also prepared with sandbags with which to barricade the streets. Vast crowds' from the reputedly loyal districts of the city poured into the Nationalist quarter, and, had they received the slightest provocation from military ..or police, the riot of Sunday and Monday, would have become a revolution. :

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