BROKEN HILL TRAGEDY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 10, 13 January 1915, Page 7

BROKEN HILL TRAGEDY.

A PASSENGER’S STORY. A woman who was one of a pai't.> of friends on the picnic train recounted her experiences. The woman had not long been out from England, and the ride in the open trucks had been looked forward to as a new experience. She stated;—-“It was an experience I shall never forget as long as I live. There was only one truck between the one I was in and the one that suffered most from the firing. It was all so suden—so unexpected, so astounding—that one almost forgot to feel afraid; but gazed instead in open-mouthed wonder. We saw the cart drawn up near the pipe track as we came along, and we saw the flag on the cart.

“Even when we heard the firing we did not think anything was wrong. We thought it was perhaps a snnm fight or some target practice. Then we saw the Turks with then’ guns deliberately pointed in the direction of the people on the train. Very quickly we knew the worst, an'l the next few minutes was a very trying period indeed. The train soon hurried us out of range. Nearly everybody was shouting out to the driver to stop, but we were on the Acacia Dam from which some of the people telephoned the news to town. “One woman, who was lifted out, presented an awful appearance. She and a baby clasped in her arms were covered in blood. lam sure the men intended to shoot the enginedriver, but misjudged the distance, and the pace of the train, as the first shot entered a truck very near the engine. There were many narrow escapes.

“Among the army of armed men who were fighting the Turks was a boy with a pea rifle as his weapon. He took up a position well in the firing line, and appeared to be as keen as anyone.”