RAND STRIKE

Te Puke Times, Volume II, Issue II, 8 July 1913, Page 3

RAND STRIKE

FIERCE FIGHTING

..OVER 100 CASUALTIES

' Johannesburg, July 6. A settlement has been reached in the Rand mining trouble after fierce rioting in the streets and pitched battles between the soldiers who were called in to protect Johannesburg from the violence of the strikers. The settlement came none too soon, for the night of horror was succeeded by a strangely quiet morning. Sinister forebodings of renewed trouble led* tci the proclamation at noon of the strictest martial law in the Witwatersrand area. Enormous' and eager crowds surrounded the newspaper offices and when the settlement was announced intense excitement prevailed, the men scrambling for special editions. Many firms _ enrolled special constables. Sir James Filzpatrick and other members of the old Imperial Light Morse, enrolled with hundreds of others in the special citizen police. Special constables when sworn in were armed with rifles and fifty cartridges. Prior to the settlement a great mob assembled, early yesterday afternoon outside the Rand Club and refused to disperse. The dragoons were ordered to charge, but another mob quickly formed, and, reinforced, stoned the club. The troops fired and numbers fell, while the remainder fled. The total casualties exceed a hundred. The trocps were for two hours raking the principal streats with rifle fire. All the ambulances were busy. Sixty were killed or wounded vvithin a comparatively small time in a restricted area. Orderly meetings were held at Pretoria and other districts. Only 300 troops remain at Potchefstroom, consisting of sappers and gunners. Fifteen of the former were requisitioned to drive the trains in the event of the railwaymen striking. It is re;o:ted that the railway between Germiston and Pretoria has been cut. The police and military are watching all the roads to Pretoria