THE SLING RIOT.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 May 1919, Page 10

THE SLING RIOT.

A DISCREDITABLE OUTBBBAE. PAMAGS ESTIMATED AT £IO,OOO. (From the Dominion's Correspondent) Londou, March 22. The most serious riot in the history of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force occurred at Sling Camp, Salisbury Plain, on Saturday and Sunday last. The longcontinued delays in the sailing of the outward transports in consequence of the shipwrights' strike have naturally had a most unsettling effect on everybody, but, speaking generally, our men had appeared to be taking the situation in tbe best spirit. As a matter of fact they had little to complain of. Since the armistice more New Zealandcrs have sailed for home in proportion than any other Dominion troops. Australia, with a force of five divisions, has shipped home 20,000 men. one division, has got •awtiysijffi). Canada, despite tbe much shorter distance, has, in proportion to her.force abroad at the signing of the armistice, transported home only 40 per .tent, of what we have done.

% It must be borne in mind that the situation of late has been a trying one. Every effort was being made to get the transports away, but delay after delay arose in consequence of the industrial troubles, and postponement would be made ..of the departure from camp of a draft for two or three days; at the end of that time the ship's refit would be found to bo still incomplete, and further postponement for a few days inevitable, and so it would go on. The postponements were generally so short that it was impossible to give leave, and this led to discontent.

In my letter of March 7 I referred to the disgraceful Canadian riot at Kimmel Camp, in North Wales, where a number of people were ki'led, including a V.C officer, who was trampled to death. A couple of days later it was anounced in the papers that 3000 of the men at Kimmel had been embarked for Canada. This draft was in pursuance of the Canadian repatriation programme, and had been arranged for before 'Bib riot took place. Its bald announcement in the press was unfortunate, and undoubtedly led irresponsible elements elsewhere to argue that a riot was a good recipe for a quick passage home. Other grounds of discontent at Sling were the compulsory education system, the guard duties, alleged preference to married men in the repatriation and so on. As is inevitable in the handling of large bodies of men, some of the grievances on matters of detail were well founded, but, from what I can gather, Brigadier-General Stewart, the Camp Commandant, has throughout done everything in his power to remove legitimate grounds for complaint. Any criticism of his attitude in this respect has been that, if anything, he erred on the side pf too much conciliation, than too little. General Stewart has won a high reputation at the front, both with officers and men under him, and I think the last thing he desired was that unnecessary hardship or constraint should be borne by those under his command. On the Saturday of the outbreak General Stewart had had a gathering of the men, at which he explained in detail why it was that they were unable to get away immediately to New Zealand, why leave could not be given on short postponements of boats, and, after traversing other grounds of discontent, appealed to the men to put up with these temporary inconveniences in the same spirit that New Zealanders had shown throughout the war.

The temper of the men at this time was shell, however, that the General's counsel was like water on a duck's back. Later in the day an ugly spirit began to develop, and the crowd made an attack on Uie Canterbury quartermaster's store. This was wrecked and the stores looted. The Canterbury canteen then received attention, and was similarly raided and smashed up. The Canterbury officers' mess was next attacked, and an encounter took place between the officers and the men, the officers defending themselves with staves. The mess was and 'looted, and the furniture *nd billiard table smashed. One officer had a scalp wound attended to in hospital, and one, at least, of the men was also taken to hospital. The Wellington officers' mess was also attacked, and the raiding of canteen and other stores continued until the men

tired of the task of destruction. Appeals by the officers for men to assist in seizing the ringleaders and restoring order are stated to have met with no response. The thoroughly wanton nature of the damage is instanced by the way in which the private kits and belongings of men who happened to be stationed on duty in the quartermaster's stores were ripped up by the men. General Melville, G.O.C. in the United Kingdom, on hearing of the outbreak, ordered that eight men from the units in camp should be sent up to London to state whatever grievances they had. The men went up on Sunday, the 15th, but, without waiting to hear' the result of their representations, the riot was continued. I understand that some Aus-' tralian soldiers came into the camp on the Sunday, and took a leading part in stirring up things. Most of the remfjining stores were broken into and looted, and I hear the damage done on the two days runs into fully £IO,OOO. From what I gather, General Melville went fully into every ground of complaint. Alterations requested by the | men's spokesmen were granted in numbers of cases. The delays in the dispatch of transports, and the day to day postponements, were shown to be due to causes entirely beyond the control of the New Zealand authorities. On the question of guards, it was pointed out that it was impossible to dispense with those entirely, but guard duties would bo reduced to a minimum. Numbers of the grievances were shown to be due to misapprehension of the facts, such as the alleged preference to married men, and so on.

General Stewart was present at the interview.

The men's spokesmen ex-pressed themselves as well satisfied with the way their requests had been considered, and, I understand, asked if they niiglit act jointly in explaining the position" to the men and helping to bring them to a more reasonable frame of mind, and also to facilitate the putting forward of any other grievances in a proper way. This was granted, and the united influence of everybody was desired in maintaining a "proper spirit of discipline and order, but it was firmly pointed out that whatever nction was desired to be taken with reference to any matter that might arise in the future must be taken in a proper way, as provided by the regulations. Any attempt to go outside of this would | not be countenanced for a moment. The military authorities, as will be

seen from the above, have been faced 'with a very difficult situation in this ■unfortunate affair. I have since heard that a number of the ringleaders in the riot were arrested in the small hours of the morning some days afterwards, and immediately removed from the eamp. Fortunately for the good name of New Zealand, no reference to the outbreak has been made in the press here so far. My only object in sending you this is for publication at your discretion should grossly misleading accounts of what has taken place be circulated in the Dominion.