STREET-FIGHTING.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 November 1923, Page 4

STREET-FIGHTING.

(By (>. Ward Price in '‘.Daily Mail'’.) DESSELDORF, .Sept. 2G. Each time professional dutv obliges me— very reluctantly—to be present In i'e -tii'ct-ligiit ing is going on, ceit ,jn i iiriutis characteristics of the crowd adit ays impress tbenisolves upon my mind. It 1.-, dtsl tu bing to recall liotv frequent llie <;j»!>iu t unities of ,-iieli observation bare become since ponce officially returned to tin- world, 'though many pear-, tli,-ink Heaven, have parsed since Bliti.-b ran:: v, itb tin- rifle* and levulver -.hot- of civil war. savage, futile Old iiiiini.nl slaughter bn- lately lerritie.l coiunless tov.n.'. ml only in | reland inti, acres-, th" vail,tie breadth of Enrols a-, veil. The worst "I this unorganised -itcelli;/htiu_r. i- it - I■'-■■■. liderinjc confusion. Streot-lighiing. I'm thermo.e. is ehnr.vicri.sed by a bitterness and | ersotial haired that official warfare seldom knows. Where i- the enemy ! is be in front ei bciiiini.' sii'l arc you with the oi her -ide or between the contending pat lies ; .Shooting is going on ; bullets whistle |.a-t ; but who is shooting, and ,u what arc the bullets aimed? A man by vonr side as happened to me yesterday ■ suddenly draws, a big revolve; .and empties it down the street. [Sites bo know v. but be i- firing at. or h i.', be iust lest bis bead ? The movements of the crowd are of no guidance. They rush blindly in any and all directions, a 1 cording to the last panic-stricken shout they beard. And how they ru.-.h! 'i lie stampede of tins thousand people down a narrow street i- in it.-clf a terrifying spectacle. They are (|ia erl.v silent: t'nev need ill llieir breath to run. If one fall-, fifty pile on top ~f I,im. and then kick and claw tlicin.-elvc- free from liie liumali tangle a ml i u - h on. often leaving the undermost bleeding and unconscious on the ground. Yd when terror i- at iis height one catches glimpses of odd nouclialani e. title either to oNooplional self-control or to inn nns • illll- lolb-se-. As the mob lushed, down tlm side streets from the II ind.-nbiu g Wall ye-terday afternoon, myself with them, with the Green police filing into tlm brow n from behind. I noticed on reaching shelter behind the theatre a little elderly undersized (I'erinau. who. amid all the pandemoniUiu. '.'.as cidicly combing Ids flowing moustache in front: of a pocket-mirror. A man was shot tight, thiougli the cheek beside him and fell with blood gushing from a crimson crater in hi<

! pale face, lint the little (lerman stiil j kept nil his attention concentrated on I a tiresome tangle at the extreme tip ' of his left whisker. .Abandoning all ic'i’ecj for municipal tint', the mol, of fleeing Separatist demonstrators then (barged across I.lm gardens heiimd the theatre, the bullets <>■ the polite muling after them through the tre-s. I - "'.as noticeable what: an instinctive cy*' lea eover lie.' least inilitary-lookiug mini or even women develops in moments i ; I neec.-stty. Every little dip in the ;..r' 1 11111 was In'! of ; entile coveting Ibll. “• itb ! lic'r c nns v, rapped d.-pcrtin*. ; I'lii .it, c fin.it was out off by an i end < i iiiK.ci'iatii det I It. But u necd:euon I C. I ■ vi cuds' inure -Icotii!:;: end -ho'diiig I• i•.ic hundreds of tin jetowd bad I Pinged in anil time sit ug- | '-"hug it!." a Im: d of cal !!e to the ot! ■ r j le. Item which I key rush (I oil. (I: II - ! I'il'g and iedrag. tied. ,|, w n the -trcct'■'p? '■ V .... ! •■'!. a':d batdly bail tlm tiling bo-bm-.t them -topped than iittinlicd- of i c.tpie who would dread . n attack of liditi n/. t came creeping Ini k, imj idled 1 imcoiiliolhible eurinsity to sec what

".I- going on round tlm next cor, or. '•Menu -t , t :dI t!m betrayals ot hu'•utn character w 1 1 idi such an occasion IfUs-elllo, f's | S, n,,!;,,. |!; , ,\id,»s thc revelation .ei Ibe tiring rieliy ye-tertlay tlm ni•.l.• was -mind iened to Hun on tlm ti.mi Police, and , myself saw .j ! • liitlg sidle- oi - 'Vagerv " hot! I , oi th; ee poll',.men ii,',|" oil', roiu.ded (,y mal e bundled- oi 'be <1 ■ iniaisi 'at., ; .Maddened by the -I. outing:. the Sip ainii-ts il-diP'-rsi -lv set to v.oru to beat lim lile out of t hem a' d '•' lan. the Pload-sl-.ine I .green i.gu-es CI hi-t s;l:;ne.| modes. to the ground, a- tutinv men a- > nuld ; . t at tln in ? them. V. it ‘i woi sc than animal |,, r .,cil , , Ihe French ■I, o: .- b.;,| cleat Iv had Strict I 'del"- 1:0! to life lode - they v -c e attacked, and though thev did .something. by manoeuvring their ).t,;,-es. to p, oic'it I w rcl'dr'il glen, nothing 'due l cl' a: mod iateivei.t.ioM could have sai l'd I hern f'ent that nmvil. dresser! respectably enough hut : "ting v.ei'e than wolves. In it- larger a-| eat. the affair , •' tlm Jlmdeti'airg Wall at Di’sse.'do, f m slerAr.y showed plainly tli,at ilia German in a ill hot it.y i- jii.-, wliat le ever was.

Idle orders that (,'esder bad i,.':nifestly given for idm breaking-up o' the Hbinelatul Separatist movement by force, wic the same kind „r ord-•; as a Junker Minister of the Inteiior t;,,ii1.l have given under the Kaiser teg m-. 1 he Prussian .iachbunt is ju.-t a- heavy, though it is new on a Republican ! :g. I and li-'o T'mtt ii Prince's notcuious iele-I gram to youiig i.imilena'if von foist-j net*, who sabred tbe lame tubbier B '/ J i_ J hern lit'loi'e the war, ‘iiravo, fnai or j fester darauf!" ('■(!(> to it. m.v 1,-0"!. I represents the deepest ."onvict'inn;"of a

Berman vested with power. (n Diis-eldarf the lesull has been I tiiat a populatii n which had never I el to re.-.enl the From it ornimilion [ row dicers and waves fraaticabv ai lliej sight ol a French office; in uniform. ! "Idle tlio cavalry patrols in the st'iefx hast night were greeted with cue - of ‘A ivo la France. Vive la bibort-:" to "ditch 1 noticed the French trey.' responded with sardonic smiles.