TROUBLE ON A TRANSPORT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 273, 28 April 1915, Page 3

TROUBLE ON A TRANSPORT.

ALMOST A EIOT. i A soldier who loft with one of the reflit reinforcements lias written to ;l i friend in Dunedin giving some partial j lars of tlic voyage to Egypt. lie says* | Tilings seemed quite quiet when wa l rceched ——, and no leave was really expected, as the previous lot had none. ! We were the only boat that moored at | the wharf, and we took our route march in the morning. Things were too formal from tlie start with us. Our officer in charge refused to allow fruit or drinks or post cards to be s< ; ''. Ui us on ■ the march, and even declined to allow an old lady who in the kindness of her heart had gathered her few (lowers for us to pass out into the ranks. We inarched at attention through the town, instead of going through singing. Then iiway out we were given a great reception at an hotel near the beach, and when the men saw that in spite of their heat and thirst and the evident desire of everybody to "shout" they were not j ,<;oiug to get a, pint of beer apiece, some ■of them broke ranks for the bar. That W£;s the start. About 3in the afternoon I saw a rush of about (it) down the gangway (I was on the bridge, on duty at the time). The first man tackled the sentry and threw his bayonet into a truck on the wharf, and the mob charged recklessly at the fixed bayonets of the picket at the end of the wharf. Of coi.rsc, the picket funked letting blood, and away the lot careered up town. I couldn't help enjoying it—it was all so sudden and so neat. But it was a most, serious offence to charge a picket, and all the artillery (except us on the bridge), with a company of infantry, were sent out with ropes to bring the erring ones home. Hardly had they gone • when another lot of erring ones went, having a great rough-and-tumble with the picket this time. Two officers were | hit under the jaw and bowled over. More | pickets went out, and then about 15 i more made a bolt, and this time the I picket met them with a hose and stopped j about four. .Most of the crowd came quietly and fairly sober. Some came dewn under the wharf and through the portholes. 'But there were one or two ; stand-up lights in the town, and, of course, all the town was-out and thought it was disgraceful—as, of course, it was. Well, they dribbled home all night and next morning, and I suppose about 10 at most are missing. But about 50 who were caught got a week's full pay stopped and a week's C.B.—that is, confinement to barracks, and simply means that they report like kids every halfhour of the day. It is a silly punishment on board ship, as. there is no leave for it to stop and no amusement from which to drag the men to, perhaps from some distance. But seven of the Infantry are at present under close arrest for inciting troops to mutiny on the morning we left, and seeing that they would be shot if they were regular troops, they will get "time" in the ordinary gaol for a certainty. I suppose they had sore heads the next morning, and had certainly had to endure a good deal of childish treatment all along. Anyway, they stupidly clamored for leave round the gangway the morning of departure, and from hot talk they tried a-.rush, and a tall officer downed the leader with a terrible hit on the jaw. Fists and boots

were flying, the loyalists lighting the mutineers, and the officers' revolvers were out. I don't care to think what would have happened if a shot had been I'neii. No power on earth would ever draw me into a mutiny, but there were

many there just waiting to he set off. i saw one officer bleeding at the nose and another limping, but after much wild talk and a fight in the mess-room at breakfast, it all ended in seven infantrymen being remanded under close, arrest for trial by court-martial at Colombo, or more probably at Cairo. Most of them are young ruffians, but one is a very decent and well-educated chap, though excitable. We are all sorry for him—sorrier still for his people. There are no V.C.'s Tor him.