DISCOVERY OF INFERNAL MACHINES

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 49, 10 May 1884, Page 5

DISCOVERY OF INFERNAL MACHINES

Scarcely had the cxcitoment consequent on tho explosion at Victoria Station commenced to die away than two other attempts to causo death and destruction at our great London Railway Stations came to light. The Fenians are evidontly hard at work, and, what is worse, the detective police seem entirely unablo to cope with " them. The discoveries at Charing Cross and Paddington appear to have come about quite accidentally. On tho evening of the 27th the clerk of the cloak-room at the former station was moving the left luggage about and checking parcels, when his attention was aroused by a strange ticking noise that emanated from a heavy black bag on one of the counters, llecalling the circumstances of the explosion at Victoria, the youth's suspicions were aroused, and he sent in a hurry for the policeman in charge of the station. The bag was then opened, and it was found to contain a box, carefully and closely sealed up on all sides. Next the police authorities wero communicated with, and, though no particular alarm seems to have been felt at first, it was decided to open the box itself, due precautions being taken. The result was the discovery that within this carefully -closed receptacle were a clock of the American alarum pattern, a pistol, and several layers of a substance that was subsequently found to be dynamite, of which thero was about 201b in all. The case and its contents wero couveyed to Woolwich yesterday morning, and there examined by Colonel Majendie, who pronounced the dynamite to be of American manufacture. The clock was attached to the pistol before-mentioned, so that on the hammer coming down on the cartridge it would be fired. The clock seems to have worked perfectly, but the cartridge, though it had been struck, did not explode, and thus prevented what must otherwise- have proved a fearful calamity ; for the bag containing the machine was left in the cloak-room on the evening of Monday, and, the clockwork being set to run for four hours, the explosion most probably would have taken place before midnight, while there wero yet many people in the station. Even, however, had that place itself been deserted, it is so closely surrounded with hotels anddwollinghouses that, had the explosion taken place, the loss of life must inevitably have been very serious. There is no doubt that tho outrages u ere the work of the same persons, whohad hoped to bring about three horrible explosions on Monday night instead of one. Itisstated that thepoliee had been warned by a man described as a foreigner that an attempt was to be made to blow up Charing Cross Station, but little heed was paid to the circumstance, so many similar communications having recently been made to the police authorities. It lias been ascertained that the timepiece stopped exactly at three minutes past four. Whether the explosion was intended to occur at that hour or oarlier is a matter of conjecture, as the clock may have continued running after the hammer fell. Tiie probability is that it was timed to go oft' simultaneously with the explosion at Victoria Station early on the Tuesday morning betweon twelve and one o'clock. By search- , ing the books at the parcels office, and comparing the number pasted on the bag by the booking clerk with the numbers in the book, it has been absolutely ascertained that the bag was deposited shortly before seven o'clock on Monday ovening. The clock was set to go in dny position, and therefore there was no' need for the dynamitard to erivo instructions— which he did not— for the bag to be placed on any particulav side, and during tho two days that the bag has been in the cloak-room it has been frequently moved to make room for other parcels. The cloak-room is situated in the western portion of the block of buildings facing into tho Strand, and extends the whole width of the premises, tho upper floors of which form part of the Charing Cross Hotel. 1 1 is a long narrow apartment, and on three sides — west, north, and eastit is bounded by walls of unusual solidity, their thickness being in no place less than 2ft., while at somo points they extend to 4ft. Parallel to the cloak-room on the western side runs the archway through which conveyances make their exit from the station, and eastward is the passage devoted to the exit of foot passengers. The thick walls described are pierced [on the west with three windows, and on the north with a similar aperture, otherwise there would not be a wealc point in their structure. At the southern end of the apartment, where the business is transacted, a wooden erection which abuts upon the platfoim is the only protection. Immediately above the cloak-i'oom is a suite of rooms, used as a hairdresser's establishment, and on the floor above that are situated three suites of rooms belonging to the hotel, one of them being in the occupation of Colonel Surtees, a director of the South Eastern Kailway. Had the dynamite exploded, its greatest force would undoubtedly have been felt in tho station itself, although the rooms above must also have suffered sevorely. The booking office to the east and tho station-master's vooms to the west would have been protected to some extent by the solid masonry, but the cellars below used for the storage of lager beer must havo been wrecked. The officials of the Government who have inquired into the case have come to the conclusion that the explosion at the Victoria Station waB the work of the same hand which designed the plot at Charing Cross,and some even go further, and state that the explosions of Oct. 30 last at Praed-street and Westminster were due to the same agency. In the Praed-street case some pieces of tin were found embedded in the wall where the explosion had fractured the brick-work, and at Victoria Station similar fragments of tin have beon found among the debris corresponding to the quality of the tin case found ftt Charing Cross,

When the discovery was made at Charing Cross the Scotland Yard authorities at once communicated to the other railway stations advising caution in dealing with any suspicious packages left at the cloak-rooms. Among other places, notice was sent to the Great Western Terminus at Paddington. Mr Hart, who had early on Tuesday inspected the ruins of the Victoria Station, and had made up his mind that the source of the mischief was dynamite, had on his return given special instructions to his staff to exercise the utmost care in taking in parcels. On receipt of the intelligence from Scotland Yard, he immediately obtained a list of all the packages and parcels deposited in the cloak-room on Monday, which had not been claimed. There were but five or six left over, and he at once proceeded to examine them. The third or fourth article handed to him was a wnall ordinary portmanteau, about 15in long and llin high, which he lifted to test its weight, and then, thinking it very heavy for its size, he gave instructions for it to be opened. The straps were unfastened, and it was then discovered to bo locked. Fortunately, among his keys he found one that fitted, and on unlocking the bag he came upon some cakes of a yellowish tint, which one of the men described as looking very like soap. They were about sin long by 2sin broad, and about half an inch in thickness. He did not recognise them as dynamite, and had no misgivings until a further inspection revealed an ordinary black japanned tin cashbox. This, when opened, contained an American metalled clock with white face, of the class that are sold at about six or seven shillings apiece Firmly attached to this clock was a small pistol, the whole being packed close with cakes of dynamite j above described. The muzzle of the pistol pointed to about eight or ten detonators, which would have been fired when the pistol exploded. In all there were a little over forty cakes of dynamite, weighing in the aggregate about 21b, a little more, both in number and in weight, than had been discovered at Charing Cross. Mr Hart observed that the clock had stopped at ten minutes past nine, and he immediately placed the whole apparatus in the charge of one or two officials, and hurried off to Scotland Yard with the news. He informed Mr Hart that tho compound was of the most destructive and deadly character, and that the buildings had had a miraculous and providential escape. The cloak-room where the parcel was deposited is situated on the departure platform, and is the lower room of a building five stories high. The portmanteau was left about half- past five on Monday, the very busiest portion of the day, as the express trains then starting are crowded witJi passengers, many of whom loave their coats, rugs, and bags in the morning, returning for them about this time. The attendant in charge remembers the portmanteau being brought in, but is not able to give a description of the man who left it with any degree of certainty. The name of Berry was given as the owner of the poitmanteau, and so far as he can offer any opinion on the matter, he believes it was a thin, tall, dark man who handed him the article. The clock had stopped at ten minutes past nine, and Mr Hart is of opinion that, being a new one, it had not beon properly oiled, and that owing to this a great disaster had been averted. When it is considered that these clocks are constructed to go in any position, and that even after it had stopped how slight a movement of the portmanteau would, be necessary to set it in motion, the terrible risk run during the seventy hours it was lying in the ofhee may be easily conceived. Some consternation was caused in the city about midday on tho following Saturday (March Ist) by the report that an infernal machine, almost identical with those found at Charing Cross and Paddington on the Wednesday and Thursday, had been discovered in the cloak-room at the Ludgatehill Station of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway. This, on inquiry, proved to be the case, and there can be no doubt that it was part of the plot planned for the previous Monday night. At Ludgatehill, as at the other chief railway stations of the metropolis, the luggage deposited in the cloak-room during the week was submitted to a close inspection under the personal supervision of the stat'en-master, when many of the articles lying unclaimed were opened and their contents examined. Nothing was found of an explosive character. The cloak-room at Ludgate-hill Station is a very small and artificially lighted place under the passage connecting the stairways from the booking-office with the platforms. Here there is no room to stack the luggage properly, so that every article can be seen at a glance, and numerous packages have to be piled in heaps by the attendant, in accordance with the exigencies of the clay's business. To this crowding it is probably owing that the bag containing the infernal machine was overlooked when the examination was made. The stationmaster, however, gave the attendants instructions that not only were they to insist on seeing the contents of any heavy or suspicious parcel before receiving it, but also to examine anything lying unclaimed beyond the ordinary time. In looking through the office at about ten o'clock on Saturday morning, the porter in charge of tho cloak-room— Stephen Holland—observed a new black leather Gladstone bag with dust upon it, showing that it had been there for some days. The deposit label attached was "No 308," and a reference to tho book with the counterfoil showed it to , have been left on the evening of the previous Monday at about eight o'clock- On lifting the bag, which was eighteen inches in length by nine inches deep, he found it to woigh about twenty-six pounds, and at once resolved to open it. The only mark outside it was the remnant of a black and white label which had been pasted on the side, of which the capital letter "L" was all that >vas decipherable. Holland succeeded in opening the lock with a key in his possession, when he discovered what led him to decide not to pursue his investigation further singlehanded, but to send for his superiors and the police. At the top of the bag was the plate from the back of an American white metal clock, lying on a copy of "The Standard" of February 22. Immediately below the newspaper were a number of flat packages wrapped in thin oiled paper of a light brown tint, with labels on them, " Atlas powder,' with the capital letter "A " underneath. Mr Bowman, the Station Superintendent, together with Inspector Pitney and a detective ofiicer of the city police named Taylor, from the Bridewell police-station, Mere speedily on the spot, and a further search showed there were forty-five packages of the powder, a pair of pliers, and some portions of a clock, while in the centre was a tin box wrapped in a dirty-coloured cotton shirt, a white Japan silk handkerchief, and a coloured cotton handkerchief, with the name on it of Greeney and Sons, Washington. The tin box having been removed from the vicinity of the other packages, the police and railway officials went by cab to the Chief City Police Office in the Old Jewry, where they were received by Colonel Fraser, the Chief Commissioner, and Superintendent Foster. A telegram was sent to the Home Office acquainting Sir William Haroourt of tho matter, and a

messenger was also despatched to Colonel Majendie, her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Explosives, with the result that Colonel Ford drove down to the city directly, arriving at the Police Office about a quarter to one. The instant that the machine was placed before the Colonel he pronounced it to be a fac smile of those discovered at Charing Cross and Paddington. Without hesitation he opened the tin box, which was about five inches long and four wide, by two and a half inches deep, and found it to contain an American clock with loaded pistol barrel attached, and two cakes of "Atlas Powder" dynamite, one broken asunder and placed opposite tfce muzzle of the pistol, with ten detonators in it. PreI cisely as was the case at Charing Cross, the hammer of the pistol had fallen, but without exploding the detonating cartridge in it. The clockwork arrangement was set for it to go off at about the same time as the others, at which the explosion at Victoria Station actually occurred ; but after the cartridge missing fire the clock had run itself down. An examination of the packets taken out showed them to be precisely the same quality of dynamite as that already found elsewhere, while the quantity, forty-seven cakes, weighed twenty-one and a quarter pounds, enough to have caused terrible destruction. A further search through the contents of the bag showed a direct connection between this attempted outrage and that at Paddington, as amongst the articles was the back taken from the clock found at the latter place, and the labels torn off the forty-two packages of dynamite used there, which it will be remembered were miesing. In the tin box and round the dynamite was a piece of quick-match, a yard and a half in length. After detaching the explosives from the clockwork, and drawing the charge of the pistol, Colonel Ford had the dynamite sent to the Home Office Magazine at Woolwich, and took away the .machinery with him for the use of the authorities. The powder magazines in which the three lots of dynamite have been deposited are situated in an isolated portion of Plumsread Marshes, and are placed in telegraphic communication with the Royal Arsenal, whilst they are protected by a strong military guard. Had the dynamite gone off in the Ludgatehill cloak-room, the results would have been far more serious than was the case with that which actually exploded at Victoria Station. Instead of the surroundings being of a li^ht lath and plaster character, with a roof with a quantity of glass in it, they are all of the most solid nature. The cloak-room is under the stan way leading to the platforms, which are built on arches. Opposite the cloak-room, and fronting it, is the booking office ; on the right is the first-class refreshment buffet of Messrs Spiers and Pond, while on either side and to the rear are other waiting rooms and a smoking room belonging to the refreshment contractors. An explosion at any time about midnight, when there are always a number of passengers returning from the theatres to the suburbs on the platforms and in the wait-ing-rooms, must have had terrible results.