POLITICAL CLUB WRECKED

Southland Times, Issue 23735, 6 February 1939, Page 7

POLITICAL CLUB WRECKED

GUARDS THROUGHOUT BRITAIN POLICE DISCOVER BOMBS DURING RAIDS (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received February 5, 11.20 p.m.) LONDON, February 5. An explosion wrecked the interior of the Torre Conservative Club, at Torquay. Nobody was injured. Guards are stationed at the British Broadcasting Corporation’s studio at Bristol, and at the electric power station at Portishead. Owners of private property have been instructed to maintain watchfulness over large buildings. Every London railway station and public service depot was under a strong guard throughout the night after the bombings. A flying squad in the course of the raids discovered seven bombs at Stoke and Newington. It is believed that the bombs were brought to England by men who crossed the border secretly to the North of Ireland and from there to England, escaping the Customs examination.

The police seized a proclamation during a raid in Oxford street calling on exiled Irishmen to unite to compel a British withdrawal from the Irish Republic. The Daily Telegraph says it is learned that Irish Republican Army documents seized by the Ulster police show terrorist plans which can be traced to the Dublin group. Membership of the I.R.A. throughout Britain is estimated at 3000. The ' authorities are convinced that a campaign has been planned similar to that in Ireland in 1920. CLOAK ROOMS SMASHED Twisted metal, splintered woodwork and broken glass are scattered over the Tottenham Court road and Leicester Square tube stations, and great cracks have split the ceiling outside the Leicester Square booking office as a result of the bomb explosions in the luggage offices at 6 a.m. The cloak room at Tottenham Court presented a chaotic scene, with luggage burst open and burned, racks buckled and brickwork blown out. A tobacconist’s shop was completely wrecked. Henry Long, a porter at Tottenham Court road, said that there were eight passengers going up the escalator when the explosion occurred. “Two women were blown down,” he said. “I ran up to warn the others and saw the ticket collector lying on the floor with his leg broken.” Eye-witnesses at Leicester Square said that they heard a heavy object dropped and felt the ground tremble. They saw a vivid flash, followed by clouds of acrid smoke.

The police found among the wreckage at Tottenham Court road small twisted pieces of metal, probably the timing mechanism from an alarm clock. The Passenger Transport Board has officially stated that the staff at Tottenham Court road noticed a red glow behind the cloak room door, followed immediately by an explosion which wrecked the interior of the cloak room, flinging the door across the ticket hall, and breaking the ticket collector’s leg. The board describes the damage at Leicester Square as more serious, and the statement adds: "Orders were immediately issued for all other cloak rooms to be examined and no more deposits accepted unless opened for inspection. A special police guard is being placed at the other tube stations and cloak rooms and the main line termini are being examined.”

Scotland Yard has issued a statement appealing to pubilic utilities and explosive manufacturers to protect their properties. The Daily Telegraph says that the Ulster police have informed Scotland Yard that they have discovered a widespread plot, including the assassination of -police officers in London and slsewhere.

Hundreds of tons of explosives, ammunition and arms are believed to be hidden throughout Britain. Scotland Yard was warned by telephone throughout the day that sabotage

was contemplated against police courts and other buildings, particularly Bow Street.

The Eire Cabinet, in Dublin, considered the bombings and decided that no action was possible while Eire was politically calm, but it will co-operate with' the London police if requested. John Gavahan was arrested at Manchester on a charge of conspiring with Patrick Walsh and others to cause an explosion at Manchester. Tire superintendent of police alleged that Gavahan said: “Although you have got us the cause will go on; something will probably happen in Liverpool tonight.” An Irishmman, Michael Mason, an engineer’s fitter, and Joseph Walker, a labourer, were arrested at Liverpool on a charge of having in their possession six electrical leads similar to those found in Manchester at the time of the outrages, also a large quantity of documents to which considerable importance is attached. The police are not only most active in London, where members of the flying squad are travelling in disguised cars with ramshackle bodies and anticrime equipment, but they have searched 30 houses in Manchester. Similar activity in Liverpool resulted in two arrests. - — .