GREAT RIOT AT CAIRO.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 292, 19 May 1915, Page 5

GREAT RIOT AT CAIRO.

AUSTRALASIANS IMPLICATED. AX INDESCRIBABLE SCENE. " - ■SEVERAL TROOPERS SHOT. Auckland, May 17. The Star has received from two correspondents with the New Zealand troops details of a serious disturbance in .Cairo on Cood Friday night. Some Aus- - tralians were "beaten" for a vow piastre* -• b\\ the inhabitants of a shop in a disreputable quarter of the town, and, hav- , ■ ing been joined by other soldiers, tbe ' party commenced to wreck the building. .Within an hour the bull-ring,, as th<* ' quarter is known, was a hccth'ing niasi. ' of humanity and soldiers, i:i all num- . bcring about twenty thousand troops, in- ; : eluding Australians New Zealandcrs, £ English Territorials, and men from Cey» ?' lon. 'ilie next four hours was a scene f " ; which was indescribable. Troopers en- J ' tered hundreds of flats occupied by i. ■ doubtful characters, and out of the win--5 dows all sorts of articles were thrown ! f , —elicffoniciu, mirrors, tables, chain, * beds and all sorts of furniture., A piano ' was dropped from the third floor win- ' dow in one instance to the street below, t .where tho furniture was gathered and- "*■• made a huge 'bonfire. Pickets, mounted ' and on foot, quickly appeared, but against so many they were powerless. The city fire brigade arrived, but their hose was cut and they beat a quick retreat. The permanent police used their revolvers on tho marauding troops, which only made matters worse. The pickets discharged b'ank cartridges, bat the soldiers soon recognised the difference from the ball cartridges, and topic no notico of them. Several troopers were shot during the affray but tbe ex-' tent of the casualties i* not known. : '