WAS IT A PLOT?

Taranaki Daily News, 20 September 1920, Page 5

WAS IT A PLOT?

NEW YORK DISASTER. NO DEFINITE CLUE YET, LATEST CASUALTY LIST. • By Telegraph.—Press Assn Copyright, Received Sept. 19, 5.5 p.m. New York, Sept. 17. Private individuals have offered ten thousand dollars more a 9 a reward for evidence leading to the arrest of those responsible for the Wall Street explosion. The failure of anyone to claim ownership of a horse and lorry which were blown up in the explosion further strengthens the belief of the authorities that the explosion was the result of a plot. The dead now total 36, and the injured 300, of whom many are expected to die. The authorities are convinced that 'the explosion was the result of a plot, either German or anarchistic. The Board of Aldermen have offered a reward of ten thousand dollars for the arrest of those responsible for the damage to property, which is conservatively estimated at two and a half million dollars.

Business in Wall Street was resumed to-day as normally.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. ANARCHISTS SUSPECTED. • THE EVIDENCE OF LITERATURE. Received Sept. 19, 5.5 p.m. New York, Sept. 18. The Federal authorities now believe that *he same anarchist group which perpetrated the bomb outrages in June, 1919, caused the Wall Street explosion. Identical literature" with that disclosed in the scenes of last year's occurrence was found in mail boxe3 not far from the Wall Street disaster.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. GREAT LOSS OF SECURITIES. AN ARREST MADE. New York, Sept. 17. Investigators of the Wall Street disaster state that the explosive carried with it iron slugs, weighing a pound or more. These flew in every direction, doing considerable damage. This discovery strengthens the theory that it was a bomb outrage. Thousands of dollars' worth of securities were lost as a result of the explosion. Stockbrokers report that many messengers carrying securities dropped them and ran as soon as the detonation occurred, while other messengers disappeared in the confusion, and have not yet returned. Owing to a growing conviction that the explosion was caused by an infernal machine, the Federal authorities in other large cities have been instructed to look out for similar occurrences. Strong guards have been placed around public buildings and the homes of well-known financiers and commercial men.

The number of the injured discovered now totals 200. A large army of workers, under the light of countless searchlights, last night began to clear up the debris and repair the damage in the explosion area, and within 12 hours of the detonation the streets began to assume a more normal appearance. All the business houses and the Stock Exchange announced that business will be resumed this morning as usual. Edward Fischer, a man who sent postcaids-' warning friends of the explosion, has been arrested in Hamilton, Ontario. Fischer is an ex-employee at the French Commissioner's office here. He sent from Toronto warnings to members of the commissioner's staff and to a New York broker, stating that Wall Street Would be blown up. This was pn the fifteenth day before the explosion in front of the Morgan offices. A tennis club caretaker reports that Fischer personally warned him that an attempt would be made to blow up the Morgan building. Fischer is regarded as mentally unbalanced, and a victim of Bolshevism.— Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.