FATAL SOLDIERS’ RIOTS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 64, 21 February 1916, Page 6

FATAL SOLDIERS’ RIOTS.

SENSATIONAL SYDNEY SCENE. PROTEST AGAINST EXTRA TIME. TRAINS COMMANDEERED. PANDEMONIUM IN THE CITY. DEFIANCE OF THE AUTHORITIES POLICE FIRE ON THE MOB. ONE KILLED :: SEVERAL WOUNDED. - IN POSSESSION OF HOTELS. FREE LIQUOR IN THE STREETS. Per niEM Auckland, February 21. Sydney papers contain reports <>l a sensational soldiers’ mutiny. On Monday, thousands of *lllOll at Cusula. struck against extra time for training of 11’ hours per day rcqniied under the new syllabus. They gathered more men from the Liverpool Camp, and took charge of the trains for the city. Arriving there, they broke through the railway gates, and maidied in an irregular line through tlie citv, looting private property and doing serious damage to the shops in the line of route. Mhcy rifled fruit and apples off the barrow-men. Mounted police charged them at the corner of George and Liverpool Streets and scattered the mob, but about / p.lll. an attack was made on the Evening News office, and a window on the ground floor was smashed. The crowd smashed some hotel windows, and again attacked the German Club.' The trouble culminated shortly before midnight in the shooting of some soldiers at the railway station.

A hand of thirty roysterers an'ivcd with missiles and assailed the militia on guard at the central station. '1 hey came on throwing stones and bottles and charged the platform on which were sitting a number of the police and pickets in a bunch. They seized a fire hose and played the water on them. They were ordered to desist, but jeered, and plied the water harder. A shot was fired by a rioter with an automatic pistol. Two constables endeavoured to wrest the hose from the mob. hut failed, and the pickets fired twice first.

The volley did no harm, and after an interval of a few minutes, the pickets fired again. Several soldiers were hit by the bullets and fell, and the pickets charged''with bayonets. When an alley-way at right angles to the station was cleared, they found one, soldier killed, and nine soldiers and one constable wounded. The wounded were convoyed to the hospital. , The man killed was Private E. W. Keefe, of the Sixth Light Horse. Ho had a bullet wound in the cheek and bayonet wounds on the side, neck, and right shoulder. He died within a few minutes <>f being shot. One man. Private Body, was unconscious for 21 hours as the result of n baton-stroke.

Two others were shot in the knee, one was shot in the head. A constable was badly but not seriously injured.

At Liverpool a mob of rioters took possession of the Commercial Hotel, ami smashed the furniture and started a fire, which was stamped out. They rushed the cellar and hauled out hogsheads of beer to the street, where they were tapped. Ke gs of rum and whisky were also looted.

Rafferty’s Hotel was also raided. Tip licensee barricaded the premises and escaped. The only damage was a few broken windows. The trouble seemed to have simmered down next day, and things were pretty quiet. A compulsory parade was ordered for next morning, and about one thousand failed to attend.

A large number of men were arrested and punished.