THE "BLACK HAND"

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2786, 2 June 1916, Page 5

THE "BLACK HAND"

MURDER IN GERMAN PRISONERS'

CAMP

By Telegraph—Press Association-Copyright

(Rec. June 1, 7.50 p.m.)

Sydney, June 1. An open verdict has been returned in the case of Hans Portmnn, a German prisoner of war who was allegedly dqno to death at Holdsworthy Camp, Tho Coroner said that tho evidence showed that deceased was a; membor of (tho Black Hand Secret Society, which was composed of the worst characters in the camp, who blackmailed and terrified their rich, influential, and physically weak fellow-Ger-mans. The want of evidence to show who struck Portman was due to a weliconcerted conspiracy of ignorance, for fear of the consequences.

The. Coroner supported a suggestion that tho worst class of tho prisoners should bo deported after tho war. [TJiere were sensational disclosures at an inquiry into the death of Hans Portman, a German prisoner of war interned at Holdsworthy Camp. The Commandant, in his evidence, said that numerous b?utal assaults had been committed in one compound, and men were taken to hospital with broken ribs and • fractured skulls, He was informed that the outrages wero tho result'of the formation of a "Black Hand" Society, consisting of 30 or 40 members, who threatened . the • lives of, moneyed or iniluential persons if they did not, pay certain sums into a political organisation which existed in the camp, and had been instigated by influential people for tho furtherance of political ends in tho camp. When they had done with tho president, they clubbed him over 'the head and fired him out. Several disturbances arose on April 19, culminate ing in two thousand prisoners armed with cudgels maltreating several so-called members of the "Black Hand" Society. Four of these, covered in blrfod and gravel, wero thrown over tho compound gate. They wero picked up and taken to hospital. One, named Portman, died a few minutes later.]