[Editor: This is a chapter from the novel The Coloured Conquest (1904) by “Rata” (Thomas Richard Roydhouse).]
Chapter XII.
Bennett Burleigh’s story. — Sydney burned and pillaged by its own people.
Sydney was in a ferment. The excitement was added to by the arrival of Bennett Burleigh in the “Fulcrum.”
He dashed into the harbour about midday, and interviews with him appeared in the evening papers.
He reported that the Japanese were not yet on the coast, but nevertheless might be expected to put in an appearance at any moment.
“The great battle!” he repeated, when asked about the smashing of the British fleet. “It was not much of a battle, it was just slaughter. The Japanese had it all their own way from the jump.
“In the first place, their superiority in ships and armament was overwhelming, and the way in which they used their submarines made the thing a dead easy snap for them, though the British fought desperately.”
“How did they got the submarines there?” asked the interviewer.
“They had them there for some months at an island of no importance, and not visited by traders. This island was within easy distance of the scene of battle.”
“But how did the British come to fight a battle there?”
“It was a put-up job, as I learned from the Japanese. It was arranged by the Japanese Admiralty that a supposed Japanese traitor should sell the British certain information. The effect of that information was a concentration of various British squadrons at a certain point. I mentioned only two in my cable, but I am told there were four. It was simply a trap, one of the things that the ingenious Oriental mind rejoices in, and the British fell into it.”
“And it meant the death-blow to the British nation?”
“Yes, no doubt; but the Japanese could have done the work without that trap had they so minded. It would have been easy for them to have met the squadrons singly on their own respective stations and beaten them by sheer weight — and a surprise, of course.
“No information was allowed to be sent from any Japanese or Chinese ports for some weeks, and no one in the outer world knew where Japanese or Japo-Chinese squadrons and transports were going.
“The cable stations were seized, though the cable companies actually did not know it, for trained Japanese and Chinese cable operators were substituted, and carried on the services as though nothing had happened. The cable companies were sold, and the outside world was deluded until the blow fell.”
“But you got information?”
“I did,” said the famous war correspondent, with a smile. “I have good friends in the East even now. But they are unable to act openly, and I must take my gruel with the other Whites.”
He smiled somewhat dolefully.
“But about the information. I got it and sent it off on a steamer to be wired from the nearest point outside Eastern control. It had to go a good way, you may guess. When they received it in England it was too late to do any good — even supposing the people there had believed it.”
“And you had to do a bolt?”
“Rather! And I went for the scene of battle — the trap battle I may call it. The submarines did most of the mischief there. Versatile marine devils they proved themselves. It was done this way.” The war correspondent was warming up.
“The battleships fired smoke shells across the track of the submarines as they approached their prey, and also kept in touch with them by submarine gong signalling. Every device they were up to, and really they ‘enjoyed themselves thoroughly,’ as one of the officers I picked up said.
“The submarines were all round the British ships like a pack of dogs, and it was soon all over — all over.”
A grey look came into his face, and he was so preoccupied that the next question had to be repeated before he heard it.
“Why weren’t Japan and China stopped from building up a huge world-beating navy? That’s an old question. The answer’s old too. Everybody’s business was nobody’s business. You remember when Russia entered into an undertaking with the Powers to quit Manchuria in October, 1903, and didn’t do it? Did any or all of the Powers try to make her? No! Japan had to do it, off her own bat, although the European Powers and America had agreed — inferentially, at any rate — to step in. Interference meant fighting Russia. In this latter business it meant fighting Japan and China.
“There might, at any rate, have been a European alliance to meet the Eastern invasion.”
“The thought is reasonable, but the Powers were not. Their jealousies were at work. Each would cheerfully have seen the other throttled. The Continental Powers were willing that England should lose India. Very willing. And so it was all along the line.”
“But they must at length have recognised a common peril and seen the necessity for common action?”
“You know as much about all this as I do. You know that there has not been united action, and now it is too late.”
“And what shall you do, Mr. Burleigh?” asked the reporter in conclusion.
“Do?” inquired Burleigh, nipping off the end of a cigar. “Why, sit tight, and see the game out, of course. What the devil else is there to do? Come and have a drink.”
* * *
The night Bennett Burleigh arrived there were other mass meetings in Sydney, but I did not attend any.
I decided to go over to the North Shore with Mabel, at her request, and have a talk with her father about the position of affairs in the city.
We intended to tram it to the Quay, but after waiting at the corner of King and Pitt Streets for some time, and seeing no tram moving on either line, we inquired and learned the reason. A tram conductor standing on the footpath gave it:
“Why should the bloomin’ tram men go on working?” he asked. “They can’t get paid, can they? And why should they work for nothing? The Japs may get here at any time, and they won’t pay us — not likely!”
“Are all the trams left in the streets?” I asked.
“Rather! We’ve done enough for nothing, ain’t we? There’s four days’ pay owing to us now. And wot’s it matter, anyhow? The trams no more nor anything else here won’t belong to us after the Japs arrive.”
There was no answering that.
Mabel and I started to walk to the Quay. We had not taken many steps when the gas lights went out.
Soon the electric lights followed.
Excited remarks overheard from other pedestrians supplied information as to this development.
The gas and electric light men had heard of the action of the tram men, and thought it sound common sense. They dropped work on the instant.
A cabman shouted to an acquaintance that all the railway men had ceased work. There were no trains to the suburbs or anywhere else, he said.
We reached the Quay in due course, only to find that it was impossible to get across to the Shore.
The steam ferries had ceased running, and there was not a waterman to be had. The watermen had gone up town to hear the news.
We waited for a considerable time, and eventually walked up Pitt-street again.
The city was in darkness save for a few dim lights here and there given forth by candles. There were very few of these available, and no stores were open to sell.
In some parts of the city pandemonium reigned.
Shouts and curses of men, with the shrieks of women intermingling, were frequently heard, but what was transpiring could only be guessed at.
Mabel shivered, and held tight to my arm.
I reassured her as a man may under such circumstances, but I felt terribly depressed.
The very atmosphere seemed laden with the microbes of dread, and the darkness of the night was that of the future.
A man passed talking to himself excitedly. He had gone mad.
There were many such cases that night.
I knew personally of several women who became demented owing to horrible apprehension.
“The mad people about the streets should be taken to one of the asylums,” I said to an Inspector of Police, an old acquaintance of mine whom I met.
He laughed cynically.
“Who will take them?” he asked. “The police have all gone off duty — and so, for that matter, have the Lunatic Asylum staffs. I just heard, too, that all the warders have cleared out of Darlinghurst Gaol, and the prisoners also.”
* * *
I paid a cabman two pounds to drive me to my residence in the Bayswater-road, Darlinghurst, and there handed Mabel over to the care of my mother, who, like all the people in the fair city of Sydney that night, was pale with fear.
I could not stay indoors.
Taking my brother with me I walked down William-street to the city.
At St. Mary’s a service was proceeding, and the Cathedral was crowded.
At Queen’s Square the lamps were being re-lighted. We learned that the Premier and Lord Mayor had persuaded the gas and electric light employees, on humanitarian grounds, to resume duty. It was pointed out that the respectable citizens of Sydney were at the mercy of Sydney’s criminals.
The light men did not care much about that.
“It’s a time when everybody has to take his chance,” said they.
“But think of the women,” said the Lord Mayor.
That settled it. The gas and the electric workers were men, and they resumed their labours in order to help protect the women folk against the depraved of their own race.
The police, too, were induced on the same grounds to take on their duty again.
Other than these, the only people working were the newspaper men. No offer of reward was required by them. Loyalty and enterprise determined them to get out the news — “before the other fellow,” if possible — until they were forcibly prevented.
But, stay; the telegraph operators also stuck to duty. The faithful fellows kept Sydney in touch with the other States without question of pay, or reward, and thus maintained the tradition of a service that merits more public approval than it gets.
The Town Hall was lit up, and a meeting of city gentlemen sat there continuously waiting for news, and considering the situation.
At St. Andrew’s Cathedral a stream of worshippers were coming and going, saying nothing.
* * *
About midnight the scum of the city made its presence felt more markedly. Offences against the person had already been very numerous.
“Burn the banks and stores!” was a cry that was carried through the city by “pushes” of criminals who had already taken possession of and pillaged a number of hotels.
Jewellers’ shops were forcibly entered and the valuable contents carried off, some to be spilled on the road.
The great general stores were also attacked, and goods of all kinds were soon scattered about the streets.
Processions of men carrying bottles of liquor streamed along the footpaths, screaming ribald songs, and constantly nipping until they fell cursing into the gutter.
The banks were broken into, but the strong-rooms defied the wreckers, and many were burned to death while working at the safes.
For the cry of “Burn!” had been acted upon, and soon Sydney was aflame, blazing in a hundred places.
“Give the Japs a Moscow to come to,” shouted a loud-mouthed politician. And the sentiment appeared to be greatly appreciated.
“Sydney won’t be any good to us any more, let it be no good to the blanky Japs,” said another.
And so they yelled and cursed.
The flames spread with lightning rapidity, and soon all the business portion of Sydney was one huge furnace.
Thousands of lives were lost, and even as I write I can hear again the screams of frenzied people caught in some fire-boundaried cul-de sac.
The flames could not cross Hyde Park, and my people were safe.
Before daylight I had them on the road to the Blue Mountains.
I could not hire a vehicle, but took two horses and a sociable from a livery stable near by, the owner and his men having fled with the other horses and carriages some hours before.
Source:
Rata, The Coloured Conquest, Sydney (NSW): N.S.W. Bookstall Co., 1904, pp. 90-98
Editor’s notes:
blanky = substitution for a swear word (such as “bloody”)
bloomin’ = (vernacular) blooming (an exclamatory oath), a substitution for a swear word (such as “bloody”)
Continental = (in a British context or from a British viewpoint) continental Europe (i.e. excluding the British Isles)
Darlinghurst Gaol = a prison located in Darlinghurst, New South Wales
Japs = abbreviation of “Japanese” (a reference to a group of Japanese, or Japanese in general)
nipping = drinking, imbibing nips (small mouthfuls, or sips) of alcoholic drinks
Oriental = of or relating to Asia, especially East Asia; something which originates from Asia or is characteristic of Asia
push = a gang; historically, the term refers to a street gang; may also be used to refer to a group
pushes = plural of “push” [see: push]
the Quay = (in the context of Sydney, New South Wales) Circular Quay
See: “Circular_Quay”, Wikipedia
the Shore = (in the context of Sydney, New South Wales) the North Shore
See: 1) “North Shore (Sydney)”, Wikipedia
2) “Lower North Shore (Sydney)”, Wikipedia
wot = (vernacular) what
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