Vicious Mob Attacks Seven Volunteers

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 501, 2 November 1928, Page 9

Vicious Mob Attacks Seven Volunteers

ONE THROWN INTO SEA CLASH IN PORT TRAIN (United P.A.~ — By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press AssociationJ MELBOURNE, Thursday. The worst clash which has yet occurred as the outcome of the waterside workers’ strike took place to-day in Melbourne. Seven volunteer workers who were travelling In a train to Port Melbourne were attacked by unionists all the way from the city to the waterside, a distance of four miles. - One man was thrown into the sea and stones were thrown at him in the water. He was rescued in an exhausted condition. Six other men were pushed into a pit alongside the Port Melbourne station in spite of a warning that another train was due. The attackers carried “waddies” concealed in newspapers. The volunteers on the pier had to be restrained from making a- counter-attack. The police say the first attack on the volunteers occurred when the men were about to enter the train for Port Melbourne at the city terminus. They were hopelessly outnumbered. The assailants knocked the volunteers down and kicked them. The latter were just able to struggle into the train. There the attacks were' continued. Isolated fights occurred on the wharves at Port Melbourne for two hours. Mounted troopers then arrived and dispersed the rioters, whose numbers had grown to 1,000. Dreadful language was used the whole time.