LIKE A FORT.

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16812, 2 June 1926, Page 3

LIKE A FORT.

POLICE BATTER DOORS DOWN. AN EXCITING RAID. When a big posse of police raided a building in Campbell Street, Sydney, on Saturday night they found the place guarded as if it were a fort. One of tiie most sensational raids ever carried out in Sydney ended in victory for the police, who, after an hour's work, battered down three heavy barred and bolted doors ami arrested 23 Chinese. The men, who were taken away in patrol vans, were charged at the Central Police Station —twenty with being found in a common g-aming bouse, and three on a charge of smoking opium. The officers assembled quietly outside the building, which is of four storeys, and while some of the police kept watch at the back, others made a sudden rush up the stairs. Just when they got to the second lloor a man, who was seated outside a doorway, jumped from his seat and shut and bolted a heavy wooden door at the top of the stairway. The door was barred with a heavy batten, and bolted at the top and bottom. There were no other means of getting to the next floor except through the door, and the police were forced to batter it down with hammers.

They ran to the next floor, and found a similar door barring their progress. (Phis also iiad had to be battered down and the police rushed into a room, where twenty Chinese were gathered. The Chinese were led down the stairs into a waiting patrol wagson. The police had not finished their night's work, however, for when they tried to get to the floor above the room where the men were gathered, they found another heavy and welllocked door in their way. The hammers were produced again, and the third door was hurst open.

entering a room I hick with smoke the police look in charge three more Chinese. These three men were charged wilh smoking opium.