RED RIOT

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 300, 15 June 1912, Page 6

RED RIOT

MOB VIOLENCE IN BELGIUM. CROWDS CHARGED BY SOLDIERY. MANY KILLED OR INJURED. Brussels, June 4. The election riots have taken on a revolutionary character. The Socialists' Central Committee has decided to proclaim a general strike tomorrow. More alarming, however, is the mutinous spirit that is showing itself among the soldiers. During yesterday's disturbances a battalion of scouts and the Antwerp section of the artillery and Civil Guard joined the rioters in the destruction of property. The clerical press demands the dismissal of these troops. Besides the outbreaks in Brussels, Liege and Antwerp, serious rioting occurred in Bruges, Tournai, Ghent and Louvain. The Jesuit colleges and other Catholic institutions were attacked, and the windows of each building smashed. In Ghent also the crowds stoned uie convents, wrecking all the windows. DESPERATE FIGHTING. The gendarmes, withdrawn swords, repeatedly charged the mobs, and in Antwerp upwards of SO persons, including a few children, were either killed or grievously wounded. Desperate fighting took place also in Verviers, where the mob made a savage attack upon the gendarmes. Thirty rioters were killed or wounded, and several of the gendarmes were injured. Some of the scenes witnessed in Lice are indescribable. The streets were piled high with the broken tables, chairs, beams, planks, stones and other things used by the rioters. Tramways were wrecked, the mob in one instance overturning several street cars and using them as barricades. DEMAND FOR SEPARATION. The Flemish Walloon provinces arc making a demand for administrative (Separation. Some of the Brussels newspapers report that among the working classes in the Walloon districts there is a growing sentiment in favor of annexation by France. Two thousand colliers in the coalmining district of Mons have struck work as a protest against the continuance of the present Government in office. The trouble generally is spreading, and 30,000 additional reservists: are to be called out.