THE SLING RIOT

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 191, 8 May 1919, Page 7

THE SLING RIOT

A DISCREDITABLE OUTBREAK DAMAGE ESTIMATED AT , £10.000 I, (FromOOutr t Own Correspondent.) London, March 22. The most serious riot in the history of. the New Zealand Expeditionary Force occurred at Sling Camp, Salisbury Plain, on Saturday and Sunday last. The long continued'delays in the sailing of the outward transports in consequence of the shipwrights strike have naturally had a most unsettling effect on everybody, but speaking generally our in'en had'appeared lo bo taking the situation in the best spirit. ' As a matter of fact they had little to complain of. Since the armistice more New Zealauders have sailed for home in proportion than any other Dominion troops Australia, with a force of five divisions, has shipped home 20,000 men. New Zealand, with one division, has got away .2-4,000. Canada, despite the much shorter distance, has, in' proportion to her force abroad at the signing of the armistice, transported home only 40 per cent, of what we have done.

It must be borne in mind "that the situation of late had been a trying one. Every effort was being made to get the transports away, but delay after' delay. arose in consequence of the industrial troubles, and postponement would be made of the departure from camp of a draft for two 'or. three ■ days, at the end of that time the ship s refit would be found to be still' incomplete and a further postponement for a few days inevitable, and so' it would go on. The postponements were generally so 6hort that it was impossible to give leave, and this led to discontent. ' In'my letter of March 7 I referred to' the disgraceful .--Canadian riot at Kinmel Camp 'in North Wales, where a - number of. people were killed, including a V.C. officer, who was trampled to death. A couple of days later it was announced in, the papers that 3000 of the men at Kinmel had been embarked for Canada. This draft was in pursuance of the Canadian 1 repatriation programme and had been arranged for before the riot, took, place. Its bald announcement in the Press was unfortunate, and undoubtedly led irresponsible elements elsewhere to argue that a riot was a good recipe for a quick passage home. , V ■ "S -.Other grounds of discontent■ at Sling were the compulsory education system, the guard duties, alleged preference to married men in repatriation, and so on. As is inevitable in. the handling of large bodies of men, softie of the grievances on matters' of detail were well founded,, but from/whfrt I can gather Brigadier General Stewart, the Camp Commandant, has throughout done everything in his power to remove legitimate grounds of complaint. Any criticism of his attitude in this .respect has beep that, if anything, he erred on the side of too much conciliation, than too little. General Stewart hasiwon a high reputation at the front both with officers and. men under him, and I think the last_ thing fie desired was unnecessary hardship or restraint should "be. borne'by. those under his command.

On the Saturday-of the outbreak, Gen-, e'ral Stewart had had a gathering of tho men, at which lie explained in detail why .it was that they were unable to get away immediately to New Zealand, whv leave could not be given on short postponements of boats, and after traversing other groWds of discontent, appealed to the men to put up. with these temporary, inconveniences same spirit New Zealanders had . shown throughout the war. ~,.•'■' i.

The-temper of .the men at this .timo was suclS, however, that the General's counsel was liko water on a (luck's back. Later in the day an ugly spirit began to /develop, and the crowd made an attack on the Canterbury quartermasters-store. This was wrecked and the stores looted. The Canterbury canteen then received nt-. leution, and-was s ; milarly raided and smashed up. The Canterbury officers' mess was next'attacked, and an encounter took place between the officers and the. men,..the, officers dlending them-, selves with ' staves.- "'" The mess was wrecked and looted.and the furniture and .billiard tabic smashed Qne_ officer had a scalp wound attended to in hospital, and one at- : least of the men was also taken to hospital.

'- The Wellington officers' mess was also attacked, and the.raiding of canteen and other stores continued until the men tired of the task of destruction. Appeals by the officers for men' to assist in seizing the ringleaders and • restoring order are stated to havo met with no response.

Tho thoroughly wanton nature of the damage is instanced by tho way in which the private kits and belongings of men who happened to be stationed on duty 'in the quartermasters' stores were ripped up by. the inob.

Gec'ral Melville, G.O.C. in the United Kingdom, on hearing of the outbreak; ordored that eight men from the" units in camp should be' sent up. to London to state. whatever grievances they had. .

The men went up on Sunday, the 15th, but without waiting to hear the result of their representations, the riot was continued. 1 understand that come Australian soldiers 'came into the' camp on the Sunday and took a leading part in stirring up things. Most of the remaining, stores wore broken, into and looted, and I hear the damage done on the two days runs into fully .£IO,OOO. . From what 1 gather General Melvillo went fully into every ground of complaint. . "Alterations requested by the men's spokesmen were gra ited in numbers of cases. The delays iii tho dispatch of transports, and the day to day postponements . wero shown to be due to causes.entirely beyond the control of the New Zealand authorities. On'the question of guards, it was pointed out that it was'impossible to dispense with these entirely, but guard duties would be reduced to a.minimum. Numbers of• the grievances wero shown to be due to a misapprehension of the. facts, such as the preference alleged to married men, and so on. ,

General Stewart was present at the interview. ,

' The men's spokesmen expressed. themselves as well. satisfied with the way thoir request.had 'been considered, and I understand asked if, they might act jointly in explaining 'the position to the men and helping to bring them to a more'reasonable frame of mind, and also to - facilitate the putting'forward of any other grievances in a proper way. This was granted, as the united influence of everybody fas desired in maintaining a proper spirit of discipline and order, but it was firmly pointed out that whatever action was'desired to be taken with reference to any matter that might arise in the future, must be taken in a proper ■way as provided in the regulations. Any attempt to go outside of this would not be countenanced for a moment.,

The military authorities, as will be seen from the above, have been faced with a very difficult situation in this unfortunate affair. I have since heard that a number of the ringleaders in the riot were arrested in the small hours of the morning some days afterwards, and immediately removed from the ramp. Fortunately for the good name of New Zealand no reference t<s the outbreak has been made in tho Press hero eo far. My. only object in sending you this is for publication at your discretion should grossly misleading accounts of what has taken place be circulated in the Do : minion,

"Numbers, wealth, geographical situation, nnd a common language suggest that the British and American peoples must cement a. continuing partnership based upon common ideals unless > a uniquo opportunity of turning _ over ■ a new page in the history of-civilisation is to bo missed," writes Mr. Archibald llurd in the "fortnightly Beview." A British commercial aeroplane concern is raid to be seeking a concession for the establishment of an aerial route from Pernambuco, Brazil, to near Hio de Janeiro (over 1200 miles). It is intended to extend tho system to Buenos Aires Inter.

Sir Eric Ueddes, speaking recently at a dinner of the National Alliance of Employers and Employed, appealed for greater mutual trust between workmen and their employers, and i econiuicndcd that, with a view to removing suspicion, workmen should ho shown accurate statistics illustrating working costs. At the church meeting held recently at the Metropolitan Tabernacle (London) Dr Dixon's resignation was very regretfully accepted.