ANARCHISTS AT BAY IN LONDON.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14391, 5 January 1911, Page 5

ANARCHISTS AT BAY IN LONDON.

GREAT FICHT, WITH POLICE, SIEGE OF A TENEMENT. THE BUILDING BURNED. THE INMATES DEAD. Press Aoooifttion—By Tel.-r-Copyright. LONDON; Jon. 3. At G. 30 p.m. on Monday the polico attempted to arrest a woman at a house in Sidney Street, bnt wore fired . Upon, and withdraw. They arranged to surround tho building, and attempted to raid it at daylight, hoping to catch tho fugitives asleep. This manoeuvre failed,. but the people iusido wore driven into • the attics: Meanwhile other polico assailed the back premises. Tliey placed ladders in a yard adjoining a brewery, and attempted to scale the walls, but a fusilade from magazino pistols swept the yard and compelled them to retreat. Detective Locson placed a ladder, and was<shot in the stomach directly ho appeared above the wall. The bullet is identical with those used in tho Houndsditch affray. Detective Leeson was taken to the; London Hospital. The fire of the anarchists with their' automatic pistols resembled a miniature gatling gun. Many of the polico had marvellous oscapes. Thousands of spectators -watched tho'siege, and some wore struck by. bullets. 1000 POLICE ENGAGED. The police retreated, and every approach was closed, the neighbours being ordered to remain in their houses. By the middle of tho morning tho police were a thousand strong. A party, fully armed, occupied Martin's buildings opposite the suspects' tenement, and,also neighbouring roofs, including the Rising Sun public houso. Sevon hundred police surrounded tho buildings behind the Anarchist Club in Jubilee Street and Commercial Road. > i A number, of sheds were pulled down, the batter, to isolate the position. Every rush by the polico pror duced. a fusilade. One policeman borrowed a Guard's rifle, and despite a fusilade ran to the house and shattered the lower windows with the butt of the gun.

SCOTS GUARDS ASSIST. ' Sixty Scots Guards from the Tower joined the police in the attack on the anarchists, and used their rifleß. Tho anarcliists maintained a. brisk fusilade with automatic pistols behind the barricaded windows. Tho Guards occupied the ond9 of Sidney Streot, and fired, kneeling, at every opportunity. Other Guards ascended tho cooling tower of ttoe : brewer/ aijd fired into tho attic. Others were stationed in the yard facing tho windows, and fired from the shelter of baulks of timber! providing natural loop-holes. Five or six fugitives wore seen at the windows, firing from them alternately. Occasionally they gave a display of dare-davilry by leaning from the windows for a hasty shot.

; THE BUItbINO BURNED. explosions. At 1 p.m. the building took fire; the murderers being driven into the attics. As the flames rose, ihe man were seen oil the: roof, and they fired indiscriminately on the military; ; The spreading fire wbb accompanied by loud explosions.. : Presently .-the roof collapsed. The - fire brigade . extinguished; .the flames after the; building had' teen gutted.. , '. , : . 1 .. The troops kept up a. continuous sniping until the roof. foil in, but the dosperailoes replied.despite the flames, until the collapse of; the roof. AFTER'.THE FIRE. Late in the' afternoon the ruins were searched,. and -the bodies of two men, hardly recognisable, were found. Of the two bodies found, there are indications .that one committed suicide. : iDuring the search a portion of the building fell, injuring six firemen,. one critically. The other- casualties are: Detective Leeson, shot in the chest, not seriously; colour-sergeant of the Scots Guards «h'ot in- the hand; a policeman wounded, in the hand. Three civilians have wcunds in their heads. A force of hospital nurses was in readinest on tho scene. CAUSE OF THE FIRE. A rumour that Mr Winston Churchill ordered the house to be burned is authoritatively contradicted. The police are convinced that the fire was due either to the fusilade cutting the gas pipes, or, more likely, that the miscreants set fire to the premises to avoid capture. DESIRE TO COVER TRACES. One theory is that the besieged started the blaze. It is supposed that realising that their case was desperate they determined to destroy the evidence of their organisation. WINSTON CHURCHILL PRESENT. Mr Winston Churchill, Home Secretary, arrived on the scene at noon, during the progress of the fight. He daringly proceeded beyond the firing line, and surveyed the house. He was subsequently persuaded to take s! elter. MEN "WANTED" ARE DEAD. It is believed that Peter the Painter and "Fritz, the remaining men wanted for the murders of the constables at Houndsditch, were concealed in the club, and the police are satisfied that the two men perished. The police detained several persons taken from the lower portion of the building before the siege.

FURTHER PARTICULARS, WATCHING THE SUSPEOTS k ARTFUL DISGUISES. LONDON, Jan.,.4<", Tlio polico wero throughout oonvinc-< od that the assassins wero hiding Morountaelt, whom they "wanted," ill tlio neighbourhood. Officers disguised us shoeblacks, Jewish-' pedlars, a'nd street hawkers, watched tho premisoM day and uifdit, and terrible evidoneo was soon forthcoming. Secret observations mode from empty apartments/ and also from manufacturing premises resulted in two suspicious looking foreign lodgers being located at No. 100 Sydney Street. The police plans wore laid with the utmost seereoy. The other, tenants were quietly removed early yesterday without alarming the suspecto. The newspapers comment on tho policy of the polico in refraining to rush tho suspects forthwith. They preferred to wait for dnyjight, and probably for superior instructions, in view of the fact that in the ease of ,Houndsditch darkness had favoured the .miscreants. . N Tho landlady of .a Sidney Street lolginghouso pointed out to tho polico the front room of tho first floor where the suspects wero asleep.

DOCTOR FIRED ON. Five comrades and a doctor who. wero assisting to rcmovo Detective Leeson) wero subjected to a hot fire. The main part of the battle was waged between ihe besiegers at tho windows and those directly opposite. At. intervals sharp cracks- of the Service rifles were punctuated by savage snaps of the automatic, pistols returning their fire, and it was possible to. boo the dust of tho striking bullets as thoy chipped tho masonry from. tho windows behind which tho polico. and soldiers wero cscohsed. Every "window in the vicinity nud many in the actual -area of tho conflict wore filled with onlookers, mostly •women and children of tho Semitic typo. It was a miracle that the erratic ricocheting bullets, many of them fired at an angle, inflicted so little injury.

DUMMY SOLDIERS. • DRAW ANARCHISTS' FIRE. Dummy, soldiers" at one window find a spldiors' cap hoisted on a stick in other instances, drowr tho anarchists' fire, the soldiers almost simultaneously responding. At one moment scores of police offered to rush tho building, but Mr Churchill forbado ■ them, as.he was unwilling to jeopardise their Hveß. A bullet struck a colour-sorgoant'a. shin while he was kneeling in the street. Ho was medically treated, and limped back to a position in the firing line. ARTILLERY'AND SAPPERS SUMMONED. A section of the Royal Sorso Artillery from St.-John's Wood was summoned in order to demolish the house. A party of the Royal Engineers from Chatham was also summoned, to execute sapping and -mining, but their services wore not required, the firo, .solving tho difficulty.

THE FINAL SCENE. A CHOICE Off 1)BATBB. .'. : - There was ' breatMess excitement when, at a quarter pastr one, the fire engines arrived. They were not permitted' to act, though the house Was burning fiercely, Xt was evident,; at 1.30 p.m. that .the building '-would bei gutfed. The approaches to i he house! WGtje cleared, and the soldiers ( and] poKoe lined tip. There was a sudden heavy burst of firing. An anarchist, unable to stand the heat of the pursuing flames, appeared behind the "lass panels of : t!ie front door. Instancy the rifles flashed, and the occupants of the. house; opposite ' heard him f-hriek in agony... Almost simulfiineous-' ly the spectators heard two shots in rapid succession sound within. It'.was apparent that the b°seiged at that moment committed suicide, or else the moment afterwards perished under rhc collapsing roof and floors. The -crowd showed their sympathies with the police by cheering lustily on witnessing the miscreant's fate. ■ , \

EXPLORING THE RUINS. THE DETECTIVES' PROGRESS. : The firemen then began to work*. The head, arms and legs of one body were missing, and the skull'was '• fou-id separately. ' A cinematograph film of. the battle was exhibited last nigh't. Detective Leeson's bullet was extracted and he is progressing favoai* ably. Two Mauser pistols n»d three boxes of photographs were found in ihe ruins. A COINCIDENCE. , Received 11.35 p.m., Jan. 4th. LONDON, Jan. 4. It is a coincidence that Beron, who was murdered on C'apham Common, lived in Jubilee Street.

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