ANARCHISTS AT BAY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 14398, 5 January 1911, Page 3

ANARCHISTS AT BAY.

ACCOUNTS OF THE FIGHT. EXCITING SCENES. By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. LONDON, Jnn. 4. Tho police throughout were convinced that tho Houndsditoh assassins were hiding in Morountzeff’s neighbourhood, and officers disguised as shoeblacks, Jewish pedlars, and street hawkers were watching there day and night. Terrible evidence was soon forthcoming. Secret observations made from apartments, and also from nuuuifacturing promises, located two suspi-cious-looking foreign lodgers at No. 100, Sidney Street. The police plans were laid with the utmost secrecy. Other tenants were quietly removed early yesterday without alarming the suspects.

Newspapers comment on the action of the police in refraining from a rush on the suspects forthw.th, but the police preferred to await daylight, in view of the fact that the darkness at Houndsdxteh had favoured the miscreants. Comrades and a doctor assisting to remove Detective Leeson were subjected to a hot fire.

The main part of the battle was waged between the besiegers at the windows and those directly opposite. At intervals the sharp cracks of the service rifles were punctuated by the savage snaps of the automatic pistols returning the fire. It was possible to see the dust of the bullets as, in striking, they chipped the masonry from the windows behind which the police and soldiers were ensconced. Every window in the vicinity, and many in the actual aiea of the conflict, wore filled with onlookers, mostly women and children of the Semitic type. It was a miracle that the erratic ricocheting bullets, many of them fired at an angle, inflicted such little injury. Dummy soldiers, at one window a soldier’s cap hoisted on a stick, ami other devices drew the anarchists’ fire, the soldiers almost simultaneously responding at one moment.

Scores of police offered to rush the building, but Air, Churchill forbade it, being unwilling for them to jeopardise their lives.

A bullet struck a colour-sergeant’s shin while he was kneeling in the street. Ho was medically treated, and then lie limped back to his position in the firing line. A section of the Royal Horse Artillery at St. John’s Wood was summoned, in order to demolish the house, and a party of the Royal Engineers (Chatham) was summoned to execute sapping and mining, but their services were not required, the fire solving the difficulty. Due theory is that the besieged started the blaze- upon realising that their case was desperate, being determined to destroy any evidences of their organisation.

Breathless excitement reigned when, at a quarter past one o’clock, the fire engines arrived, but were not permitted to act, though tho house was burning fiercely. It was evident at 1.30 p.ra. that it would bo gutted. Approaches to the house were cleared, and soldiers and poliee lined un. Then camo a sudden heavy hurst of firing. An anarchist, unable to stand tho heat of tho pursuing flames, appeared behind tho glass panel in tho front door. Instantly tho rifles flashed, and tho occupants of tho house opposite heard him shriek in agony. Almost simultaneously tho spectators heard two shots in rapid succession within, and apparently the besieged at that moment suiciued. Otherwise, a moment afterwards, they must have perished under tho collapsing roof and floors. Tho crowd showed their sympathies with the police by cheering lustily on witnessing tho miscreants’ fate. ’Hie firemen then began their work. The head, arms and legs of one body were missing, and tho skull was found separately. Leoson’s bullet was extracted, and he is progressing favourably. Two Manser pistols, and three boxes of photographs were found in tho ruins. Tho landlady of the Sidney Street lodging-house pointed out to tho police the front room on the first floor, where the suspects were asleep. A curious coincidence is that the man Bcron, who was murdered on Clapham Common, lived in Jubilee Street. PRESS COMMENTS. (Received Jan. 5, 8.5 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 4, Earl Cawdor, in Tho Times, states that ho hopes there are not many such desperadoes in East London, nor is it very likely there are. Other newspapers express the widespread stupefaction and indignation of tho public at tho abuse of British hospitality, and demand rigid supervision of aliens. Tho Daily News protests at any possible attempt to identity East End aliens as a class with desperadoes such as this gang, who are a problem by themselves. AVhat is needed is a notoriously efficient police deterrent to their landing and the continuation of the Government policy of expelling criminal aliens. INJURED PERSONS. (Received Jan. 5, 11.5 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 4, Newspapers recall the similitude of tho Cato Street conspiracy on Eebruary 23, 1820. Among the ruins two large automatic pistols were found. Sixteen police and troops of civilians and firemen are being treated for injuries caused by falling debris.

[The Cato Street conspiracy referred to above was a conspiracy by a band of desperate men, headed by Arthur Thistlcwood, who assembled in Cato Street and proposed tho assassination of tho Ministers of the Crown at a

Cabinet dinner. They were betrayed and arrested, and five were executed us traitors.] BODIES IDENTIFIED. METHODS OF THE CRIMINALS. (Received Jan. 5. 0.40 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 4. The police announce that a third body, that of Petor-tho-Painter, has been found in the mins. The others have been identified as Fritz and an associate named Jacobs. There is deiinite evidepco that the defenders set fire to tho house. The police believe that Pcter-the-Pailiter and Fritz did not reside together, but kept in close communication with each other by means of women, including Bessie Gershon, in whose room in Sidney Street the police discovered both Fritz and Peter. Bessie Gershon was arrested prior to tho attack on tho house. The Telegraph says that an English girl was lured to the house by a c’onple of foreigners and ill-treated. Information was subsequently given to the police, and tho men were identified as Fritz and Peter. A third man named Rozeii was also concerned. This led to tho raid.

EXPLANATIONS WANTED. LONDON, Jan. 4. The Times says that the fact of a detachment of Guards sweeping tho streets with bullets because two anarchists were firing pistols from a house from which they could not escape needs more explanation than is yet forthcoming. Other papers express similar opinions, and the press generally demands closer scrutiny and more drastic treatment of aliens and more protection against desperadoes. Sir Robert Anderson, formerly head of tho Criminal Investigation Department. insists upon the introduction of a stronger Aliens Act. PETER-THE-PAINTER AT LARGE. (Received Jan. 5, 1.55 p.m.) LONDON, Jan. 5. Owing to the fragmentary recovery of remains, it is now definitely announced that only two bodies have been found. Poter-thc-Pamter is still uncaptured.