AS GOOD AS IN GAOL.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 11880, 16 January 1914, Page 5

AS GOOD AS IN GAOL.

TRADES HALL ISOLATED

JOHANNESBURG, Thursday

There are from two to three hundred men, fully armed, at present inside tho Trades Hall. They are determined to resist all attempts to storm the place. Tho police do not yet intend to raid the hall, as those inside are as good as in gaol. The hall is completely isolated—light, water and telephones have been cut off. A correspondent who crawled to the back of tho hall over tho roofs, and passed the strike pickets with a strike permit, found a remarkable scene inside. The inmates wero all fully armed, and expressed themselves as determined to resist all attempts to storm the hall. - All the windows and doors have been barricaded with boxes filled with bricks spaces being left for riflefiring. There were other boxes there also, full of ammunition. The defenders are living chiefly on fruit, quantities of which were brought in some days ago. They have also some bread, days old. Many of the men are clad only in trousers, boots and shirts, and are unwashed, with gaunt, haggard features. "The hall will not be taken," muttered ono of them, "until all tho ammunition is exhausted, and not a bar of iron or stick is left to wield." At tho time the hoarse words of command of tho officers in the streets, the clatter and clang of the mounted men who were taking up positions outside, and an occasional warning cry to a fleeting pedestrian who wandered into the danger zone, all emphasised the grim tragedy of the scene. A named Mcßrido was caught by the strike pickets in the act of approaching the entrance to the Trades Hall. He was struck in the face, and had to floe for his life.