BRAWL AT DANCE

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVII, Issue 21, 27 January 1943, Page 4

BRAWL AT DANCE

COLOURED SOLDIER SHOT. BOTTLE ATTACK ON PROVOST. SYDNEY, Jan. 19. Bullets and bottles flew in a brawl between Allied soldiers and Allied Provost Corps men outside an Allied coloured servicemen's hostel in Darlinghurst, Sydney. The brawl began after Allied military police had attempted to arrest a coloured serviceman, allegedly a deserter. Trouble began when a body of military police and deteqtives entered the hall, where a dance was in progress. They seized a rnan who struggled free and dashed through a door into a side-street. He was chased by provosts, who drew their revolvers and fired. The man fell wounded in the back. While the wounded man was being put into a military car, about 100 coloured troops, many carrying empty bottles, advanced on the provosts. More shots were fired and several empty bottles were thrown, narrowly missing the police. Sitting on the bonnet of the car with his revolver drawn, one military policeman kept the hostile crowd at bay until reinforcements of military and civil police arrived. The wounded man was taken under guard to a military hospital. The dancers returned to the hall, where the band had continued playing throughout the disturbance,