D. C. MCINTYRE’S TROUBLES

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3771, 12 September 1907, Page 3

D. C. MCINTYRE’S TROUBLES

Life in a Monte Video Gaol. The statement made D. C. Mclntyre to Chief Detective Mcllveney on board the Turakina, was produced by the Chief Detective in his evidence at the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court. This statement is contained in ten pages of foolscap. We make the following extracts regarding Mclntyre’s experiences pending extradition: — _ ' “ On arrival at Monte Video on the Ist of May, I was placed under anest by the British Consul, and handed over to the Uruguayan police. I was detained in the “ Carcel Central de Policia ” (the central police station at Monte Video). “I beg to point out the great suffering I experienced wnile there, owing to the exceedingly unsatisfactory arrangements for the detention of British subjects. Although the Consul did his utmost for me, still the prison regulations did not permit of outside interference, and consequently my enforced detention was almost beyond endurance, and heart-break-ing in the very extreme. During the day I was confined in a stonepaved yard, about 30ft square, and with the juvenile prisoners. The said yard was surrounded by walls about 30ft high. Consequently there was never a glimpse of the sun, and at the time of the year it was dreadfully cold. Invariably the yard was wet, and in a disgusting state from the almost constant expectoration of the attendants and prisoners, who were continually sucking herbs, etc., a custom of the Spanish. In this place I had to remain twelve hours daily, and among people who could not speak a word of English. At night I had to sleep in a room i oft square. This room was known as the warder’s room. At night it was occupied as sleeping quarters by at least two others. All prisoners arrested during the night—and there were always several —were brought into this room to be searched. They were usually in a filthy condition, and always very troublesome. The room was simply riddled with rat holes, and was almost

ALIVE WITH RATS AND VERMIN.

The place was damp and mildewed, and unfit to be used by any man. Immediately outside was the men’s closet, and immediately overhead was the females’ closet. The sanitation was very bad, and the drainage very defective, consequently I need not describe the result; the suffering occasioned was very great indeed. To get to the men’s closet I had to pass through the place where the prisoners, many of them criminals ot the worst type, were confined. On each occasion I was subjected to jeers, taunts, and other insults, owing to my being to them a foreigner.

While the suffering due to the above was great, it was as nothing when compared with the dreadful LONELINESS AND DESOLA-

TION, practically amounting to solitary confinement. I was compelled to wash myself in the trough in which many spite ons and other filthy utensils used in the official buildings were washed. No soap or towel was provided me, and being unable to speak Spanish, and there being no Knglish-speaking persons there, the mental strain was increased almost to breaking point. This I endured for 17 days, during which I had no bed or bedding. I had to lie on the bare boards, without covering of any sort, and no food was given me excepting what I was able to get by bribing the attendants. I only had £3 12s on arrival at the Monte Video prison, and that amount was used in the way mentioned during the first 12 days. The remaining five days I subsisted on THE CHARITY OF THE OFFICIALS. After making several requests I was permitted at last to communicate with the British Minister, and as a result, I was provided with a stretcher and blanket, and arrangements were made to send my meals in at the expense of the New Zealand Government. Still I remained ‘in the same room until your (Detective Mcllveney’s) arrival on June xst, whereupon I was provided with the share of another room on the opposite side of the yard. In this I remained until I was handed over to your charge on June 12th. I was just on seven weeks in Monte Video. To add to my sufferings, my box of clothes went astray on the day of my detention. I had handed it to the authorities. When I next heard of it, 17 days afterwards, I heard that a quantity of my clothing, principally what I was most in need of, had been stolen. ■ I estimate the loss at about ,£l3. consequence of my loss I was seriously inconvenienced ; indeed, for 17 days I never had my clothes off. My belongings have not been recovered, and I have handed to the Consul a claim for their value, but have not received a reply from him. So bad were the sufferings and treatment extended to me, that the British Minister has made a representation on the matter to the Imperial authorities, and the Consul informed me that he had . also requested the Imperial authorities to communicate the contents of his letter to the New Zealand Government, When leaving the Uruguay, the chief officer of police handed me a voluntary certificate as to my conduct while detained there. This and its translation I have handed to you, and I ask you to be good enough to produce it when at

at Court. Since June 12th I have been in your personal custody, and I feel sure that my conduct has given you no cause for dissatisfaction or complaint. I have now been several months in custody, and I trust that fact, with the miseries it has brought, will ba taken into consideration.