USED CHINESE OFFICERS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 34, 7 October 1946, Page 3

USED CHINESE OFFICERS

GOODS SMUGGLED INTO COUNTRY NAVY-MAN SENTENCED Twenty-four-year-old Peter William Cavanagh, lieutenant in the Special Branch of the R.N.V.R., who was alleged to have made use of Chinese officers to smuggle goods into England, was sentenced to be dismissed his ship by a Devonport court martial.

Before he was sentenced, Mr Thomas Alexander Roger, senior psychologist to the Admiralty, made this appeal to the court: “Cavanagh has been a technical •assistant in my department for four years. No one has worked more whole heartedly. “The loss of his services from my point of view would be a real calamity.”

In the library at the Royal Naval Barracks, where the case was heard, was displayed an assortment of liqueurs, wines, spirits, cigars, cosmetics, leather skins, tins of food, and cloth.

Cavanagh said he had bought them for about £SO during a sevenweek visit to Bombay, where he had been sent to, select Chinese naval personnel for training in England. Chinese naval officers were called as witnesses for the prosecution. It was stated that Cavanagh asked 12 of them to take parcels for him when they sailed from Bombay. Besides being dismissed his ship, Cavanagh was sentenced to lose six months’ seniority and to be severely reprimanded.