VENDETTA OF RACE GANGS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19367, 25 July 1925, Page 7

VENDETTA OF RACE GANGS

THE REAL STORY. BEHIND ACTS OF SAVAGERY. LESSONS BROUGHT FROM RUSSIA. The trouble between the race-gangs has been postponed, not averted, writes William Phayre in the Weekly Dispatch. There has been a good deal of nonsense talked about the proposed battle of Epsom, at which it was suggested the opposing armies were to march on the field armed with revolvers, hammers, razors, and knuckledusters, and to attack each other in mass formation. Things arc not done like that in the underworld. They do not arrange their battle, like a chess tournament., at a. fixed place on a given date. When the battle actually breaks out ami rages ail along the line it will be like a. squabble between a. pack of hungry dogs fighting for one bone. The only reason why the row was expected at Epsom is because there was where the plunder was. and where all the plunderers wanted to be. RIVALS FOR THE PLUMS.

What has really pappened is this: — There is no honour among those who live by their wits, and rivals have sprung up who want to share the plums. Among the race-gangs, as among Alatthew Arnold’s gipsies, the rule of life is plain. It is that “they shall take who have the power and they shall keep who can.” The rule of the race-gangs reached its highest point a couple of years ago, when the Birmingham gang and the London gang, commonly known as the Sabini gang, agreed to differ and to divide up the country, the Birmingham gang ruling the northern race meetings and reaping its harvest there, the Sabini gang ruling the southern meetings and enjoying, as the politicians might say. the emoluments of office.

Peace having broken out, the organisation was perfected. The southern gang, in particular, set itself to get away from voilencc, and to set up a system by which it could levy toll on bookmakers in return for such services as printing, protection, and debt-col-lecting. If that could be done the triumph would be complete, the proh?s permanent, and something like a halo of respectability might be shed over the whole institution.

But a race-gang, like a Government, can only remain in power if its followers are placated. In this case, in this new race-gang feudal system, the barons and the knights and the squires took the lion’s share of the plunder, and left only the crumbs from their table for the thugs and the, bullies who had to do the dirty work and the dangerous work, and run the risk of gaol for assaults, or, it might be, murder. Some pretty sharp fellows 1 egan to realise that, if they could organise the disgruntl'd and disappointed hangers-on they could use pressure on the racegang heads in the same way that the race-gang heads had used pressure on the bookmakers. The theory was sedulously put, about that no one could get on in the southern gang unless he was either an Italian, a foreigner, or a Jew; “no English need apply.” There were a lot of disgruntled Englishmen among the disappointed. They were not brainy fellows, but they wore tough. Many of them were boxers, some of them ex-convicts. They were banded together. and became the nucleus of the Aidgate gang. That is the gang that is going to light the Sabini gang for the mastery. THE REBELS. AVhen the Sabini gang saw the red light it was decided that examples must bi' made of the rebels. Savage attacks were made on certain malcontents. Their friends replied. That is the explanation of half a doV.en cases of mur derous assault, which could be quoted from the newspapers of the last six months. The ruling gang believed it. could punish and terrorise, and that the law could not touch it because .it could intimidate witnesses. The ruling gang has some clever men at its head; they have studied movements of force in places like Russia and Ireland. From Ireland they learned that if you can intimidate witnesses you can kill your enemies with compartive safety. They learned also to better Dean Swift’s famous phrti.se, that ten armed men can always beat one man in his shirt.

Now they put their ten armed men into motor ears and send them out to chase up some victim whose rebellious activities they fear. They don’t care very much whether they catch him. They rely on the effect of terror -the terror to the man’s wife and children. WHEN THIEVES FALL OUT. Sometimes the threatened men adopt the same tactics. They can get revolvers, too, and commandeer motorcars, and terrorise the terrorisers. That is how the position stands at the moment. The rebels believe that they can force the leaders to meet them, to make a truce, and to admit them to a division of the spoil, just as the northern and southern gangs agreed to differ and to flourish. The northern gang, too, has its troubles of precisely the same kind. That is the explanation of the outbreaks of violence in Sheffield. The hotter the war the sooner comes peace. As the wave of violence increases the power of the big gangs decreases. Already the ruling gang is splitting in two. under the threat of opposition from the Aidgate gang; in fact, one cannot keep count of the new gangs formed by subdividing the original ones. The race-going public need not be unduly alarmed. When thieves fall out honest mon get their due.