CAMP MUTINY

Hokitika Guardian, 6 January 1930, Page 2

CAMP MUTINY

EX-CORPORAL’S! STORY. STIRLING, Nov. 21. A story of the amazing mutiny scenes at Newcastle Camp, Jamaica, West Indies, on the night of June 14 was told to me to-day by Mr Charles Davies, of Drio-road, Sterling, who at the time of the mutiny was a corporal in the band of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, were sentenced to five years’ penal servitude by a general court-martial which sat fop 18 days.

Mr Davies states that, in addition to jtlie three men sentenced, two privates were also tried by a district court-martial in Jamaica. The findings of this court have not yet been reported. Mr Davies continued:

Trouble had been brewing in the battalion long before we were ordered to Newcastle from Kingston for a change of air. Complaints were being made by many men that they were overworked. Matters came to a head on June 14, which, being Friday, was pay day.

After answering the roll of the- ser-geant-major at night, the five men who were court-martialled went into a bungalow where Lance-Corporal Harrop was sleeping and played cards. They got noisy and wakened Harrop, who told them, to clear out.

CORPORAL’S FIGHT. One of the five pulled down the hurricane .lamp and dropped it on the floor, plunging the bungalow into darkness. Then someone pulled out the "lobe from the lan n and threw it at Harrop. The others went over to his bed and thumped him. He fought back but was over-powered and chased out of tlnj bungalow.

The noise of the fighting awakened the whole camp, and Sergt.-Major Freeman came on the scene. Harrop reported the affair to him naming two privates as the men who threw the globe. Sergt.-Major Freeman ordered these two privates to march to the guardroom, but Clark, Cunningham, and Mclntyre, supported by the shouts of the* crowd, stopped

them. An escort was detailed to take the two privates, both of whom appeared willing to go, but as soon as they started the other three pulled the escort away. Then there was pandemonium. Everyone was shouting, and many of the crowd were jeering and laughing at thcj N.C.O.’s. The five men went hack into a bungalow, and Cunningham shouted: “Why are these two men going, to the guardroom 9 No one is going to that place to-night.” The confusion was at its height when Lieut. Davidson, the orderly officer, arrived. He ordered the five men to go to the guardroom. They refused and Cunningham swore. Then Clark began to sing the “lied Fla".” Cunningham said. “T am a son of the soil and afraid of nobodv. He added that if Lieut. Davidson would draw his claymore Tie, would draw a bayonet. f.iout. Davidson ordered the men to go to their beds. Then, to everyone’s surprise, the two privates gave themselves up at the guardroom, and not long afterwards Clark, Cunningham and Mclntyre did the same.