INSIDE STORY OF BRAWL ON ORMONDE

Chronicle (Levin), 16 December 1946, Page 6

INSIDE STORY OF BRAWL ON ORMONDE

-Press Association

• By Telearavh—

; WELLINGTON, Dec. 15. > Making a special trip from Sydney to i relieve the congestion of passengers ; wanting to travel to New Zealand, the : Orient line'r Ormonde arrived at Wel- > lington today "with more than 400 pas-' [ sengers including 45 returning service , personnel and 12 service dependants. • With passengers for Australia the Ori monde is due to sail for Sydney tbmorrow. Discounting reports of trouble on i board the Ormonde before. she left Syd ney for Wellington on Deeember 11 as , exaggerated, oflicers of the ship spoke of it#as a minor brawl. A staff commander refused to say more than that it was "a couple of drunks." Members of the brew had more to say, however. A steward said the trouble began when some members of the crew arrived back on ship just before 4 p.m. when the passengers were embarking, instead of at noon. The men wero inebriated, he said, and one of\them misbehaved himseif on dcek. A steward remonstrated with hiin and told him he would be report'ed. A fraeas ensued and tlie steAvard, chased by the man and a few eompanions, took refuge in the pursur's office. The men followed the steward into the office and a free fight involving the officers of the ship, and later the police, took place. ' There was further trouble in the crew's quarters. The mcn are said to have been dissatisfied with the food on the voyage out and the matter came to a head about the same time as the fight in the purser's office. The men went to walk off the ship but found a large" body of police drawn up on the wharf uear the gangway. A seainan stated that after the brawl in the crew's quarters, a section of the detik was covered with blood and that hard washing had failcd to remove the stain. Two men were rcmoved from the ship ih bapdcuffs. . These men were sentenced in the police court tlie f'ol lowing day, one to six months' imprisonme'nt and the other to three months'. The eomplaint of the men according to a spokesman, was that their food was now far worse than at the height of the war. They felt, he said, that while this might be justified when they had sailed from port in Britain (t should not be necessary when they were ' moving between ports on the coast of a country where food _ was plentiful. The food had been very poor 'on the way from England. He said' that on one occasion the firemen had been expected to go for 15 hours on two meat "cakes" and some dehydrated potato. After a conference between the men and ofticers on the way from Sydney to Wellington, an increase in the men 's rations had been arranged. The ship .s under the control of the British Minis try of War Transport which is respon sible for the arraugement of all accommodation and food on board.