CHARGES OF CRUELTY

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10295, 2 June 1919, Page 6

CHARGES OF CRUELTY

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS

INSTANCES GIVEN BY MR H. E.

HOLLAND, M.P.

Tiers was a crowded attendance at the Alexandra Hall last evening, when Mr 11, E. Holland, M.P., delivered an address on “The Conscientious. Objector.' 1 Mrs Beck presided. After dealing with the events leading up to the enactment of the Military SevI .vice Act and its administration, Mr | Holland proceeded ,co deal with the ! manner ih which the sentences inflicted 1 on conscientious objectors had been mf--1 ferentiated. Two brothers called in the j same bailot and arrested, oh the same day wore each sentenced to eleven | mouths' hard labour. They were sent to different prisons, and when one had I seined his sentence he was released, but the other was given a fresh order, amt ,on disobeying tc. was further sentenced Ito two years' hard labour. Yet another brother who had been sentenced to eleven months' hard labour was released on the expiry of his sentence. Yet another objector served eighty-four days, was then sentenced to eleven mouths, which he served, and was finally sentenced to two years, which sentence he was now serving. An objector who was sentenced to eleven months without hard labour on account ot being classed Cl and considered unfit, after serving his sentence, was again placed on trial and sentenced ,to two years. These were typical cases, and it was sought to secure the release of the men now in prison and something like equalisation of the sentences. The speaker proceeded to urge that an open inquiry should be held concerning the death of a conscientious objector in prison. It had been alleged that tliis particular prisoner had not received tire attention which should havo been given a sick man, and also that on the Saturday before his death he had been deprived of his tobacco allowance for not doing sufficient work. Ho was employed “napping” road metal. TUe night before his death he was heard knocking to attract attention, and after his breakfast had been put in on the day of his death he had begged that his door might be left open, but his request was not acceded to. When the doctor came later in the day he ordered the man into the prison hospital, where he died a few hours later. It was alleged that when the inquest was held important witnesses wore not called. Dealing with the case of the fourteen deported objectors, Mr Holland quoted Sir James Allen's statement to the Orphans’ Club in August last, to the effect that every one of the fourteen wore at that time fighting with their units, but that “the progress of their conversion he did not know.” Sir James Allen’s statement, said Mr Holland, was quite incorrect. So far as he knew, none of the fourteen had functioned as soldiers, although a number of them had accepted medical service. He then went on to quote from letters_and statements of the men concerned to show the treatment they had received. In one case, the man. who was a religious objector, had been_ kept in splitarv confinement for weeks at oling Camp, and was subsequently taken to France, where he was called upon to undergo extraordinary experiences. Me was sentenced to. Field Punishment^ No. 1, and was tied to a post by his hands and feet. On one occasion he was dragged to the front trenches, and the soldiers hooted the men who, were dragging him. On another occasion an oßjoer had pulled out a revolver and threatened P to shoot him. He was kicked and punched until he became a hospital case, and his life and reason were Eoth in jeopardy. This man came back to New Zealand, never having yielded. The must sensational case was that ot n man who was also one ot the fourteen deportees, and whose experiences were almost unthinkable. This man s statement showed that ffhe deported men were repeatedly stripped of their civilian clothes m the presence of hundreds or soldiers and forcibly dressed in khaki, while on the voyage from Wellington to Plymouth. After leaving Capetown they were day by day stripped and had the ship’s hose turned on them, each time being forcibly dressed in khaki, and each time stripping it off. At last they were deprived of their underclothing, and from that time until within three days of Plymouth they went about naked, with only towels for loin cloths. All through the danger zone they were under lock and key down below. They arrived at Plymouth clad only in singlets and underpants, which they had managed to secure. Here, refusing to walk, they were dragged along the deck and frogmarched down the. gangway on to the lighter; they were earned ashore from the lighter, and were next listed on to a truck and wheeled to the railway carriage While in the dint at Sling they repeatedly removed the uniform, and were repeatedly redressed and handcuffed, with the hands fastened behind—a pro cess which caused the shoulders to acheintensely. For twenty-three days they were kept in solitary condnement on every day of which they were forcibly dressed and handcuffed. Every time the handcuffs were taken off they removed the uniform. Taken to Canterbury clink the man referred to went on a hunger strike, taking neither food nor water for five days, at the end of which time he was sent with a draft to France. Here he refused all military service and all work, and was subjected to varying treatment and threatened with the death penalty. Sometimes he was carried on the shoulders of the soldiers, sometimes on limbers, and sometimes on handcarts. Once he was dragged by the feet, head downward, for at least fifty yards. On one occasion he was sentenced to field punishment No. 1, and was tied to a post in the snow for three days running. This happened in the month of December. On another occasion, when he refused to obey an order to go “up the line, he was kicked by an officer, and was ultimately dragged on his back, with a wire cflhle under his arms, over Ukj "duck' walk"' for a fVstanco of e was dragged through three shM’ craters which were full of water, and was eventually got back to camp nioic dead than alive. The doctors who , attended him declared that the dirt was ground into his back; and, as a result of the dragging, he sustained a flesh wound 12 inches bv 9 inches in extent. From the effects of this experience it topic him long weeks to recover; and in due time, after a multiplicity of experiences, he was eventually returned to Torquay and finally to New Zealand. Arrived hero, he refused to sign for ids discharge or to accept military pay. He had been away over 18 months, and had performed no military service, nor had he done work of any kind, ft was i n unwise policy which persisted in dragging such a man to the front, and there was no diotionarial term to adequately describe the politician who would label such a man a coward.

In the list of the alleged defaulters disfrachisetl were some who were dead—one at least had been killed in the firing lino in France; another’s death had betc hastened by_ his prison experiences. Many bon fide religious objectors were included in the list, notwithstanding official statements to Ihc contrary. Th., wuos c children of many of the imprisoned nen ware suffering severely as a result of >be incarceration of their breadwinnners; end the present movement was designed to secure an all-round release, ns we'l as t< •eeur# publicity In ord r that the erueities perpetrated on this oaoagion might never have nn opportunity to repeat themselves. The things that had been done had not been done with the approval of either the Labour movement or of the people generally.