THE COLONIST. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, MAY 10, 1912. THE PARIS ANARCHISTS.

Colonist, Volume LIV, Issue 13413, 10 May 1912, Page 4

THE COLONIST. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, MAY 10, 1912. THE PARIS ANARCHISTS.

The methods adopted by the Paris police recently to effect the capture or extermination of the gang of ruffians who terrorised the city and its environs for some time, gaining notoriety as the "motor bandits," are reminiscent of the recent "siege" of an Anarchist club in the East End of London. The appeal of the London police authorities to the military for the assistance of artillery to demolish the refuge of the desperadoes struck the. French Press as extremely ludicrous. It has again been demonstrated, however, and this time in a no less enlightened city.than Paris, that a handful of desperate men resolved to sell their lives dearly can hold a position for hours against a very strong force of* attackers, and that in sxich circumstances resort to mox-e effective weapons than rifles and revolvers may become necessary. 'The authorities had a record of crime against the chauffeur Bonnot and his associates, and the world could learn only with relief that their activities had been terminated. The motor car outrages at Chantilly and elsewhere will long be remembered as one of the most amazing series of murders and robberies ever perpetrated in a country in which any semblance of respect for the law remains. For a long time the ingenuity and daring of I the gang completely baffled the efforts of the police to check their outrages. Several bank messengers were killed and policemen and innocent passengers shot down in the Rue Ordener and the Place dv. Havre, and although Bonnot was soon known to have been connected with the crimes, he proved to be a most elusive fugitive. A week after the crime in the Place dv Havre he' spent his time quietly with a sister of his at Longwy, near the Belgian frontier. He had letters sent to him there, called for them at the post himself, and disappeared only when the police arrived, thinking, that they had only to lay their hands on him. He was next seen at a dozen places, but always disappeared just at the moment that the police had traced him. He was the owner of a garage at Lyons, which lie had abandoned, and it seems that he suddenly became a convert to anarchist ideas. He told his friends that he looked upon the plunder of capitalists as the only legitimate occupation. Bonnot and his confederates wore probably ■ more closely in nature and instincts to the Paris "Apache," or hooligan than to the international Anarchist, but their methods were similar, and they proved their ability to create and maintain for some time in defiance of jiistico a criminal organisation of the most dangerous type. Such incidents in great cities of tho present day as the

East End sioge' and the beleaguered garage at Choisy-le-Roi (make us wonder whon serious international action will b'S taken to root known Anarchists and undesirable out of the refuges provided for them by the most enlightened countries, and for ever bar tho doors of civilisation against them.