GANG HATE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 43, 20 February 1930, Page 9

GANG HATE

PENNILESS COUPLE

FEAR FOR THEIR LIVES

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY,. 13th Feb.

A strange story from Perth brings with it irrefutablo evidence that criminal gangs in all tho Australian States am inter-allied to such an extent that any law-abiding citizen who dares to do his duty as a witness in a criminal prosecution may bo subjected to merci- ' less persecution wherever he may seek sanctuary. Hounded out of Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide by the reprisals of revengeful underworld gangs —driven across Australia in a ruthless blood hunt—Sydney York and his wife, who gave damning evidence at Sydney to convict a' razor , gangster, William Smiley, in September, 1925, arc now starving and penniless in Perth. They have made a pathetic appeal to tho authorities for freo passages from their native land, in which .they no longer daro to live. • York was formerly employed in a Sydney theatre. Ho and his wife witnessed the vicious attack by razorslasher William Smiley on two men named Lloyd and Scott at Surrey Hills, Sydney. In the subsequent trial York was the vital witness against tho gangster. York had borne an unblemished character, and tlio long sentenco' that was imposed on Smiley was mainly the result of his evidence. Even before the trial the gang swore vengeance, and .adopted many ways to dissuade York from appearing .in the witness box. -They instituted a reign of terrorism. On one occasion York's homo was raided, he was the victim of a vicious street attack, and he received many threats of violence. Finally York had to appeal to the police for protection. A barbed wire entanglement was thrown around his house, and a constant day and night watch was .kept. Constables escorted him to and from his work, and even sat near him at lunch. Yet, despite such- attention from the . underworld, York carried out his public duty and gave evidence at the trial. With such fear and terror did York contemplate further life in Sydney that the police advised him to go to Melbourne. The news of his going preceded him, however, and in Melbourne the gangs carried on a ruthless persecution. Again he wa3 given police protection, and he was finally advised to move further on. Adolaide proved similarly hostile, and so ho went on to Perth. He is now firm in the belief, that life will be safo only when oceans separate him from tho far-flung vengeance of the razor gangs. But. tho various changes havo left him penniless, and ho and his wife are stranded. Hence their appeal to the Government to assist them to go abroad, t-