OFFICERS IN TROUBLE

Motueka Star, Volume III, Issue 120, 7 October 1902, Page 4

OFFICERS IN TROUBLE

4 Tho story of a mock cburt-toartial of M Capetown ; civilian by a number of British officers, which prompted a re; cefat question in the House ofj Comjpaons, is an extraordinary one. • ' The Daily Express has been supplied with the fact of the court martial by au officer who was on the spot. A section of officers at Capetown decided to give a dance at the Mount Nelson Hotel on Christmas Eve. Mr Mardwicke Stanton was asked to join them. ! Invitations > were issued, and, the promoters of the affair asked if they might have the service of the infantry band to furnish the music. A reply in the affirmative was given to those in authority on condition that Mr Stanford, whose name was down on the committee, should retire. , The dance was held, and’Muring the evening some friends “of Mr Stanford warned him that something would happen to him unless he left the building. He declined to do so. About two o’clock in the morning ten or a dozen of the officers inveigled him into a room for two hours and court marshalled him. After they had kept him in the room for two hours they carried him into the grounds at the back of the hotel and threw him into a pond. They had previously shaved off one side of his moustache. He .vas next dragged out of the pond and stripped and photographed as he stood naked. All this occurred in the presence cjf several ladies who were peiched in the hotel windows. It was five o’clock in the morning, and clear daylight. These playful officers afterwards threw their victim into the pond again. Eventually they let him go after drawing up a paper which they asked him to sign. Several times he refused, but after being knocked about a good deal he, signed the document, which was to the effect that, the whole thing was a joke. At six o’clock in tht morning they turned him out of the hotel. One of their number, a little more tenderhearted than the rest suggested they should let him have a dry suit of clothes, while a wag suggested pyjamas, and which were offered him and refused. Eventually he beat a retreat in his wet clothes. He sent for* his medical man, who found him bruised from head to foot. Stanford sued his assailants for L2OOO damages, and the case came before the Court at Capetown on May 7th. It was settled on defendants promising to give him LISOO, and to pay his costs in full. In addition, each officer was to write him a letter of apology. He lias not received a penny of the damages, and the case was not reported in any of the Capetown papers owing to the action of the Press censor. Mr Stanford is a Cape Boer man, and a reporter of society matters. The akair was the topic of the day in Capetown. Our informant states that he does not think there was any animosity against the man.