The general effect of the police strike, referred to by me a fortnight ago, is negligible. Some damage was done, and three deaths occurred, though it is not quite certain that all these were directly due to the strike. Over 100 men and women have been given short terms of imprisonment for having been found in possession of stolen goods, but it is questionable whether all of these people belonged to the criminal class, and it is certain that they su"ered less because they committed serious crimes, tham because it was a case of "He, who prigs what isn't his'n, When he's cotched must go: to "There is a general belief that the riots were largely arranged by very acute criminals, of which there is thought to be a strongly.organized gang in Melbourne, with a mysterious head quite after the fashion of the best Yankee detective fiction. It is supposed that an important link in this organization is a certain individual known as—but perhaps I had better not mention his name. Either he or some ome very like him is now on remand charged with harbouring the men concerned in the murder of a bank manager to which I referred some time ago. He is believed to be the brains of the gang. However that may be the police persistently refuse bail; even the production of £1,000 in cash will not tempt them, The idea is that this man, being held in custody, somehow disorganized the arrangements for systematic looting, and the removal of goods to thw receiving rooms which are believed to exist in the very heart of the city. All this may be imagination, until the police show their hands, but it is a theory plausible enough to explain both the senseless strike, which like the Jameson raid upset some-one's applecart, and the relatively small amount. of looting which has been done.
There are sporadic outbursts in the suburbs, but the newly formed special police are rapidly obtaining control... The. Government secured power from Parliament to issue regulations of the most drastic kind, making them retrospective if necessary, and the fear of these has proved as effective as the special constable's recklessly wielded batom. There may be w political aftermath to finis incident, but for the moment the State Government can merely do its best to remedy the abuses which brought about the police outbreak. It is known definitely now that the number of police who refused duty was just one-third of the whole.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.