BELFAST RIOTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3769, 15 August 1907, Page 3

BELFAST RIOTS.

Fighting between Rioters and Military. Women take a hand. London, August 14. There has been renewed rioting at Belfast worse than on Sunday. Cullingtree police barracks were wrecked and a number of police stoned and badly injured. The Riot Act was read and the military, who throughout showed great self-restraint and patience, were compelled to charge 40 times and fired twice on the mob, killing a man and a woman. Stones and bottles were thrown by the rioters and bayonet charges and the bullets of the troops wounded hundreds, some seriously. The hospitals are full and many officers and soldiers have been maimed.

Matters were so desperate in Belfast that Captain Welsh, military magistrate, ordered the foremostinfantary line to present arms. As the rifles were raised to the shoulder the entire mob bore down upon the troops. The order to fire was then given. The soldiers fired low down, and several rioters fell dead or wounded including a boy. Awful shrieks and groans followed the volley, and the rioters fled.

Twice there was a brief renewal of the action, which led to a second volley, as the troops were nearly overwhelmed.

Larkin (Labour leader) and several priests throughout vainly appealed to the rioters to desist, and finally the riot subsided at midnight. The district was in darkness, as the lamps were extinguished. Further details from Belfast show that for hours the soldiers and constables were subjected to a bombardment of paving stones and other missiles by from 2000 to 3000 frenzied people. Women carried aprons full of stones and other missiles to upper windows and joined the fray. The troops pursuing the rioters used the butt end of their rifles. From horses men hurled stones at the troops. Mobs of maddened men and women were rushing in all directions cursing the military.

Captain Welsh, military magistrate, called upon the crowd to disperse, but stones and groans was the only response. Eventually the order was given to the troops to fire.

The Times and Telegraph agree that the soldier}' themselves, many of whom were wounded, became infuriated and charged down the streets with fixed bayonets and yelling. No sooner had the cavalry cleared the thoroughfares than the mobs returned, or surged up and down the side streets, where the tactics were repeated. Three thousand maddened people were in possession of the Fulls Road, the soldiers and mob fighting hand-to-hand. The troops were driven back.

The position of the Belfast strikers is strengthened, inasmuch, as they share the strike benefits of the General Federation of Trades Unions, consisting of a regular weekly payment to each striker, independently of any money voted by individual Trades Unions within the Federation.

A third death from wounds has occurred at Belfast.

Many houses were completely wrecked and in several streets, previously paved, the stones have been entirely torn up.