TWO AGAINST A MOB

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 425, 17 November 1930, Page 5

TWO AGAINST A MOB

ARAB SEAMEN IN WILD RIOT TWO PLUCKY POLICEMEN Tribute to two Weslh policemen, Sergeant Williams and Constable Ginn, of the Cardiff force, was paid by Sir Henry Dickons, K.C., the Common Sergeant, at the Old Bailey, London, recently. The case was one in which Arab and Somali seamen wore charged following riots in the Cardiff Docks area. Four Arabs, Musla Alohamed, Ali Alohamed, Ahmed AH, and Ahmed Nagi, had already been found not guilty of rioting, but guilty of assaulting fellow-seamen, and Sir Henry postponed sentence until the conclusion of the second case, in which seven Arabs and one Somali were charged with riot and assault on the police. The accused men were Abdulla Salem, Abdul Sahir, Muskin Abdulla, Galeb Owen, Mohamed Alcssade, Saleh Mohamed. Saleh Mohamed was also charg- 1 cd with wounding another Somali named Mahmood Afohamed, with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. Hundreds of Arabs and Somalis took part in the riots as a protest against a new form of registration by numbering for unemployed coloured seamen, introduced by the National ATaritime Board. “We no number, and we kill anyone that do,” they chanted as they surged around the shipping offices. So threatening was their attitude toward a Somali named Mahmood Mohamed that two stalwart Cardiff policemen, Sergeant Williams and Constable Ginn, escorted him toward his homo.

Sergeant Williams gave Sir Henry a graphic account of the scene. “A mob of 300 Arabs were howling like wild boasts,” ho declared. “They were shouting 'Scab, kill him,’ and 'We fight police,’ and ‘We no afraid of calaboosh’ (prison). ” The crisis came when a powerful Somali named Saleh Mohamed struck Afahmood to the ground with a bottle concealed in newspaper. Constable Ginn retaliated with his truncheon, and was bending over the injured man when Saleh fell upon him. As the officer and the Somali struggled on the ground Sergeant Williams dragged Mahmood away and, with his back to the wall, kept the crowd at bay. Things looked black for the two officers. Howling throats, the mob, armed with knives, bottles, and hammers, were beginning a second charge when reinforcements arrived and cleared the street.

Summing up, Sir Henry asked the jury to imagine what the position would have been if the two police officers had not shown courage and stood over Afahmood Mohamed when he fell. “What do you think the result would have been with a howling crowd like that?” he said. “That man would probably never have come out alive.”

Detective-Inspector A. Davies stated that the chief constable had asked that a recommendation for the deportation of the men should be considered Sir Henry consented in the cases of Saleh ATohamed ad Halmen Ali, who were each sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment. Alohamed Messade and Abdul Rohamed were each sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, in the second division. The four Arabs who had been found guilty of assault were sentenced to four months’ in the second division. Addressing* Sergeant Williams and Constable Ginn, Sir Henry Dickens stated: “I desire to express my high appreciation of your conduct. I believe myself that if it had not been for your courageous interposition, Afahmood would have lost his life. The country is much indebted to you, and I hope it will be brought to the attention of the chief constable.”