MUTINY IN CAMP

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 862, 4 January 1930, Page 14

MUTINY IN CAMP

WILD SCENES IN BRITISH JAMACA “RED FLAG” SUNG A story of the amazing mutiny scenes at Newcastle Camp, Jamaica, West Indies, on the night of June 14 last year, was told to a ‘‘Daily Mail” correspondent last month, 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. After the mutiny Privates Clark, Mclntyre and Cunningham, of the 2nd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, were sentenced to five years’ penal servitude by a general coui-t-martiai which sat for 18 days. Mr. Davies states that, in addition to the 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 sergeant 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 globe from the lamp and threw it at Harrop. The others went over to his bed and thumped him. He fought back but was overpowered and chased out of the bungalow. The noise of the fighting awakened the whole camp, and Sergeant-Major Freeman came on the scene. Harrop reported the affair to him naming two privates as the men who threw the globe. Sergeant-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 the N.C.O.’s.

The five men went back into a bungalow, and Cunningham shouted: "Why are these two men going to the guardroom? No one is going to that place tonight.” The confusion was at its height when Lieutenant 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 “Red Flag.*’ Cunningham said, “I am a son of the soil and afraid of nobody.” He added that if Lieutenant Davidson would draw his claymore he would draw a bayonet.

Lieutenant 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, Cum ningham and Mclntyre did the same.