A PITCHED BATTLE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 255, 5 January 1911, Page 5

A PITCHED BATTLE

ANARCHISTS IN LONDON. A THOUSAND POLICE ENGAGED. BESIEGING THE ANARCHIST CLUB. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. London,. January 3. Seven hundred police are surrounding the buildings behind tus Anarchist Club in Jubilee street and Commercial road, and reinforcements are continually arriving. It is believed that Peter the painter and Fritz, the remaining men wanted for the murders of constables at Houndsditch, are concealed in the club. Revolvers are being continually fired. Detective Leeson has been severely wounded.

Sixty Scots Guards have reinforced the police, and are using rifles. The anarchists arc maintaining a brisk fusillade with automatic pistols behind barricaded windows. The wanted men are secreted in a bedroom at the top of the building. After the siege had been in progress some time the building took fire, the murderers being driven into the attics. The fire brigade was summoned to extinguish the Are. Mr. Churchill arrived on the scene during the progress of the fight. Detective Cresham was wounded. Thousands of spectators were watching the battle. Some were struck by bullets.

The troops kept up continuous sniping until the roof fell in. The dcsperdoes replied despite the flames. After the collapse of the roof, the firemen commenced searching the ruins for bodies, and the remains of six anarchists were discovered. Four firemen were injured by falling walls, and it is reported that two were shot before the building collapsed. Several arrests were made in the neighborhood. THE BUILDING ON FIRE. A DISPLAY OF DARE-DEVILRY. J A DETECTIVE WOUNDED. "~ London, January 3.

13.20 p.m.—Sixty men of the Scots Guards have joined the police in the attack on the anarchists, and are using their rifles. The anarchists are maintaining a brisk fusillade with automatic pistols from behind barricaded windows. The men wanted are secreted in a bedroom at the top of the buildings. The firing continues. 2.5 p.m.—The siege continues. The building is now on Ire. 3.20 p.m.—ATrafflrer of sheds have been pulled down, the better to isolate the position. Every rush by the police has produced a fusillade. The fugitives are roaming the building, firing from different windows. Scots Guards from the Tower occupied the ends of Sidney street, and fired from kneeling positions at every opportunity. Other Guards ascended the cooling tower of a brewery close by, and fired into the attic. Others are stationed in a yard facing the windows, and fire from tie shelter of baulks of timber providing natural loopholes. Five or six fugitives have been seen at the windows, firing alternately. Occasionally they give a display of daredevilry by leaning from a window for a hasty shot. One policeman borrowed a Guard's rifle and, despite a fusillade, ran to the house and shattered the lower windows with the butt of the gun. The fire of the anarchists, with their automatie pistols, resembled' a miniature Gatling gun. Many of the police have had marvellous escapes. 5.35 p.m. On Monday night the police attempted to arrest a woman at a house in Sidney street, but were fired upon, and withdrew. They arranged to surround the building, and attempted to raid it at daylight, hoping to catch the fugitives asleep. This manoeuvre failed, but the people inside were driven.into the attics. Meanwhile other police assailed the back of the premises. They placed ladders in a yard adjoining a brewery, and attempted to scale the walls, but a fusillade from magazine pistols swept the yard and compelled them to retreat. Detective Leeson placed the ladder, and was shot in the stomach diredly he above the wall. The bullet is identical with those used in the Houndsditch affray. Leeson was taken to the London Hospital. The police retreated, and every approach was closed. Neighbors are being ordered to remain in their houses. By the middle of the morning the police were a thousand strong. A party fully armed occupied Martin's buildings opposite the suspects' tenement, and also neighboring roofs, including that.of the Rising Sun public house.

HOUNDSDITCH SUSPECTS BURNED.

The besieged buildings took fire at one o'clock in the afternoon, whether from rifle Are is unknown. Half an hour later a rattling fire was directed on the building, with a view of drawing the besieged, but they did not reply. The windows and brickwork were demolished as the (lames arose, and men were seen on Hie ~'>°f> whence they fired indiscriminately (1 » the military. The spreading fire wii« accompanied by loud explosions as the r. 'f collapsed. The Are brigade extinguished the flames after the building vl® gutted. Late in the afternoon tie ruins were searched, and the bodies K two men, hardly recognisable, wereiound. One was removed. A portion olthe building fell, burying the second, an! injuring six firemen, one critically. I Other casualties are: Jtective Leeson, shot in the chest, nol serious; a sergeant of the Scots Gu«ds, shot in the hand; a policeman wolnded in the hand. Three civilians havß wounds in their heads. ■ The police are satisfied W the two men wanted for the Hp\m»tch affair

have perished. The police detained several persons taken from the lower portion of the building before the siege. A force of hospital nurses is in readiness on the scene.

Mr. Churchill arrived at nqon, and daringly proceeded beyond the firing line and surveyed the house. He was subsequently persuaded to shelter.

A SILLY RUMOR. London, January 3. The rumor that Mr. Winston Churchill (Home Secretary) ordered the house to be burned is authoritatively contradicted. The police are convinced that the fire was due either to the fusillade cutting the gaspipcs, or, more likely, that the miscreants fired the premises to avoid capture. Of the two bodies found, the indications are that one committed suicide. THE POLICE PREPARATIONS. OTHER TENANTS QUIETLY REMOVED. FURTHER INCIDENTS OF THE FIGHTING. Received 4, 10.15 p.m. London, December 4.

The police throughout were convinced that the Houndsditch assassins were hiding in Morountzeff's neighborhood, and officers disguised as shoeblacks, Jewish pedlars, and street hawkers were watching there day and night. Terrible evidence was soon forthcoming. Secret observations made from apartments, and also from manufacturing premises, located two suspicious-looking foreign lodgers at No. 100, Sidney street. The police plans were laid with the utmost secrecy. Other tenants were quietly removed early yesterday without alarming the suspects. Newspapers comment on the action of the police in refraining from a rush on the suspects forthwith, but the police preferred to await daylight, in view of the fact that the darkness at Houndsditch had favored the miscreants.

Comrades and a doctor assisting to remove Detective Leeson were subjected to a hot fire.

The main part of the battle was waged between the besiegers at the windows and those directly opposite. At intervals the sharp cracks of the service rifles were punctuated by the savage snaps of the automatic pistols returning the fire. It was possible to see the dust of the bullets as, in striking, they chipped the masonry from the windows behind which the police and soldiers were ensconced. Every, window in the vicinity, and many in the actual area of the conflict, were filled with onlookers, mostly women and children of the Semitic type. It was a miracle that the erratic ricocheting bullets, many of them fired at an angle, inflicted such little injury. Dummy soldiers, at one window a soldier's cap hoisted on a stick, and other devices drew the anarchists' fire, the soldierß almost simultaneously responding at one moment. <

Scores of police offered to rush the building, but Mr, Churchill forbade it, being unwilling for them to jeopardise their live*

A bullet struck a coior-sergeant's shin while he was kneeling in the street. He was medically treated, and then he limped back to his position in the firing line. A section of the Royal Horse Artillery at St. John's Wood was summoned, in order to demolish the house, and a party of the Royal Engineers (Chatham) was summoned to execute sapping and mining, but their services were not required, the fire solving the difficulty. One theory is that the besieged started the blaze upon realising that their case was desperate, being determined to destroy any evidences of their organisation. Breathless excitement resigned when, at a quarter past one o'clock, the fire engines arrived,'but were not permitted to act, though the house was burning fiercely. It was evident at 1.30 p.m. that it would be gutted. Approaches to the house were cleared, and soldiers and police lined up. Then came n sudden heavy burst of firing. An anarchist, unable to stand tli£ heat of the pursuing flames, appeared uelllnj the glass panel in the ffoht door. Instantly the rifles flashed, and the occupants of the house opposite heard him shriek in agony. Almost simultaneously the spectators heard two shots in rapid succession within, and apparently the sesieged at that moment suicided. Otherwise, a moment afterwards, they must have perished under the collapsing roof and floors.

The crowd showed their sympathies with the police by cheering lustily on witnessing the miscreants' fate. The firemen then began their work. The head, arms and legs of one body were missing, and the skull was found separately.

Leeson's bullet was extracted, and he is progressing favorably. Two Mauser pistols, and three boxes of photographs were found in the ruins.

FURTHER DETAILS. Received 5, 12.20 a.m. London, January 4. The landlady of the Sidney street lodging-house pointed out to the police the front room on the first floor, where the suspects were asleep.

A curious coincidence is that the man Beron, who was murdered on Clapham common, lived at Jubilee street.