AUSTRALIA’S “BLACK HAND” GERMANS.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 April 1920, Page 4

AUSTRALIA’S “BLACK HAND” GERMANS.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM IN HOLLAND.

SYDNEY, April 13.

New Zealanders may remember—-a great fuss was made about it at the time—the “Black Hand” outbreak at the Holdswortliy internment camp, near Sydney, about the end of 191 G. Germans from Australia, the South Seas, and parts of Asia, were thrown together in this great camp—and there wore all sorts and conditions of them. It seems that they split into two dud's jo ns—-the decent, law-abiding merchant class, and the criminal class, and the criminals preyed on tho others. The merchants and professional men generally had private means, wherewith they purchased comforts and helped the wear v years to pass; the criminals had nothing, hut were determined to make the. wealthier ones “assist” them—which came to be known : n Sydney as" the Black Hand—and when wealthy internees were not as liberal -n “helping” their follows as it. was thought they might be, all sorts of unpleasant tilings happened to them and their property. Some were mutilated, a few were ;nordered. and the guards could not keep order. Then the orderly Germans organised. appointed their own police and proceeded to clean out. the Black Hand. The criminals resented this interference with their privileges, and there were i some terrible, bitter fights in which j hundreds of men were involved, : n the compound. The guards stopped them , once or twice, but neither side wanted the soldiers to interfere and they con id do little to improve matters. Out of the ferment presently appeared a solid little body of men—the ringleaders of the Black Hand, ugly and dangerous criminals. They were promptly .ouiulod up and placed in a. .small separate compound, known as ‘Sing-Sing.” Alter I hat. all was peace in the big com-

pound. ’When Germany surrendered and preparations were made to deport the Holdswortliy internees to the Fatherland, the gang in Sing-Sing betrayed the liveliest concern. It appeared that most of them had long been wanted for crimes committed in Germany, and elsewhere in Europe, and they had no wish to return, u hen they reluctantly found themselves a bond a steamer on their way to Rotterdam, the Black Hand men and many others* who were suspected of being “wanted” in Germany, comforted themselves with the thought that they would he able to slip away through Holland and avoid Germany. It appears that their plans were foreseen, however. A returned officer states that when they stepped ashore in Holland, they were met by German police, armed with all the" authority necessary to take them in charge. A few escaped, but most of them were carried off to answer for pre-war crimes.