THE LLANELLY RIOTS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1213, 23 August 1911, Page 5

THE LLANELLY RIOTS.

• TROOPS DARED TO SHOOT. FATAL VOLLEY .INFURIATES MOB. London, August 21, Details of ttia Llanelly riot;show that' tho crowd "booed" until ; the' train approached Union Bridge, where many strikers were congregated. Borne men jumped on the footplato and struggled with tho : driver and fireman. The drivpr was badly hurt. The fire on tho locomotive was extinguished, and the machinery thrown out of war. Tho Worcester Regiment had been previously withdrawn to the Great Western station, two hundred. yards dist&nt. It returned at tho double-quick.

Tho people ascended the slope' and scaled Hie walls at tho back of the gardens, whence, they threw stones and pieces of railings torn from the tops of the walls at the soldiers and the train. An officer and two soldiers went into the gardons. causing a , temporary stoppage of tho fusila.de, the officer shaking hands with and talking to some of the aggressors. "Only Blank Cartridge." Meanwhile stones from other quarters were thrown, several soldiers being struck. Hereupon the military fixed bayonets and rushed towards the crowd. Some of tho rioters shouted that- tho soldiers did not dare go to extremes. One man breast, challenging them to shoot. ■ ; Finally, Mr. B. T. Jones, chairman of the Llanclly District Council, read the Eiofc Act. The seriousness of the situation was still unrealised. Laughter and jeering followed a volley fired in the air, and shouts, "Only blank cartridge." Tho crowd continued stoning, rushing at the soldiers from all directions. Further stray shots followed, and the belief that the shooting was bluff appeared to be confirmed. Two Youths Shot Doad. Suddenly two youths seated on a wall fell backwards, shot dead; then two other persons fell injured in the same garden. Tho horrified crowd fled.

Leonard Worsey, a Londoner, ivas one of tho killed. He merely went to the garden out of curiosity, seeing men coming over the wall.

An indignation meeting of strikers and sympathisers,' afterwards held, vowed vcngeance upon these responsible for tho reading of tho Riot Act.

The mob grew, and whilo-the 'police and soldiers were engaged near the Tailway station, crowds swarmed along the line, looted a stationary train, and seized liquor and animcnition intended for the soldiery. The vans were then set on fire. Tho Mob's Revengo. Mobs marched through the town to wreck the magistrates' premises. They smashed the windows of Mr. Jones's residence, proceeded to his business premises in Market Street, broke his windows and. looted his provisions. They wrecked' an ironmongery shop belonging to Mr. TVilkins, a magistrate, also another shop. Thereupon twenty constables and a .hundred soldiers quitted tho station and took possession.'of Market Street. Baton charges were made, and the mob. was repulsed in tho town.

They returned to tlio railway, burst into the Great Western Company's goods shod, pilfering the warehouses, and scattering provisions. They burst cask? to drink whisky and beer, ladling the liquor into pails.- ..

Railway Property Fired,

The sliid was soon ablaze. The trucks on the siding were then looted and fired. Some of i-he trucks were loaded with cylinders of gunpowder, carbide, and gelatine, wliicli exploded.

Portions of the Mazing trucks and their contents wen* hurled through tlio air among tho crowd. Frantic efforts wcro mado to cseapo, but four persons were killed and a dozs-n injured, one fa!ally. A crowd of women and children were ambus tic looters in tie shops.

Portions of the main up and down lines had been previously destroyed. Telephoning was difficult. The hotels were, closed, and all business was suspended. A Bayonet Charge. Tha Worcester Regiment made' a bayonet charge near the station at midnight, when several persons -were injured. The riot lasted till news of the settlement arrived at 3 o'clock in th'e morning. One person died of suffocation, due to excess of alcohol. A mass meeting held in the afternoon protested against the importation of troops, and demanded a Government inquiry. Seven Persons Dead. Later. Later news states that seven persons are dead at Llanelly and twenty-five injured, including soldiers and police, but. not including those injured who were removed by the rioters. Seven are suffering from bayonet thrusts, one from a bullet wound, and tlh.B remainder from the explosion. _ Llanelly, the scene of the riots in W»!es, is a manufacturing town' and mineral port, on the estuary of the Burry River, on the eastern shore of Carmarthen Bay; It has a population of 25,600 inhabitants, and is a railway junction on the Great Western system. It lies ten miles distant ! from Swansea. j