ECHO OF THE WAR

MUTINY AT ETAPLES

AN INCIDENT OF 1917

NEW ZEALANDEE/S PAET

Late on an afternoon in September, 1917, -a New Zculaiidcr was strolling over the railway bridge towards Staples with his arm round the waist of a Waac. His behaviour irritated a military policeman stationed on the bridge,to examine the leave passes of soldiers wishing to visit the town. An altercation arose, as the result of which the New Zealandcr, having offended red-capped authority, was arrested and marched off to the prison hut just inside the camp. The dispute, writes S.J.C.B. in the Manchester "Guardian," had been followed from the start by the usual group of soldiers hanging about on the outskirts of the camp with nothing to do and nowhere to go. These men, considering that the loathed Bed Cap was ill-treating a Tommy, soon gathered in a crowd neai^the hut, jeering at the policeman and urging the prisoner to escape. As the uproar increased the New Zealander, encouraged by the .shouts of the. crowd, made a dash for liberty and dived into a group of Highlanders. The policeman, pestered and excited,'drew his revolver, fired at the fugitive, missed him —and killed a Jock sergeant! So the trouble began. It happened that this sergeant was a popular and much decorated veteran the very opposite (as the men believed) of the military police, who apparently remained in safety at the base camp and bullied the fighting soldier on his way back to the trenches. HATED RED CAPS. This killing of a fighting soldier suddenly set loose all. the long-accumulated hatred for the Bed Caps. With a roar of rage the crowd rushed at the policeman, who fled from the camp, past the Officers' Club, down the steep embankment of the railway, and along the cutting toward the river, and escaped. Armed guards werp quickly posted across the line to prevent further pursuit. The crowd, balked of its revenge, returned to the police hut and wrecked it. Meanwhile, as the news reached the infantry base depot of the Scottish regiments the Jocks poured out vowing vengeance, and the Bed Caps disappeared from the railway bridge. Dusk allowed the men freedom to break out of camp and search the town for their enemies. That evening wo were at diner in mess discussing the events of the afternoon when an order came that all junior officers^ wcrp_ to turn out and clear Etaples of soldiers. We found the riotous crowd in a street near the bridge trying to break into a house where some military police were believed to bo sheltering. A plucky Scotch colonel forced his way to the doorway and spoke to the men, promising that the guilty policeman should be punished and urging the men to return to their depots without annoying civilians. As the men continued to shout and argue we linked arms across the street and began to push them back toward the railway bridge. Against us junior officers, fighting soldiers like themselves, the men admitted they had no-grievance, so, merely grumbling at authority and cursing all Bed Caps, they allowed the small group of officers to herd them back to their huts. Next morning there wero J;ho usual dreary procession to tho "Bull Bing" where veteran soldiers were classed with raw conscripts for instruction in those arts of trench warfare they had already been studying during their two pc three 3'ears in the front line. In the afternoon there was again nothing to do, for all leave had been stopped. To.us officers this mattered less, as the Officers' Club was a pleasant place. For the men there was nothing. Many of them hung about the bridge, chaffing the guard of unarmed New Kcalanders that those in authority had considered least likely to irritate the discontented soldiers. No other steps had been taken beyond an order to officers to talk to tho men against misbehaviour; an order little to the liking of some officers of the Scottish depot. Toward nightfall the group of men by the bridge became larger'and larger without any attempt being made to disperse them or keep them on the move. At last as we watched fyom the club hut we heard the shouting increase, and presently we saw the mass of men hurl themselves upon tho powerless picket and burst over the bridge. .Then, as if satisfied with this display of their power to break through, most of them charged back, laughing loudly, and returned to camp. But camp discipline was affected, and under cover of darkness some of the men wandered as they pleased through Etaplos till they were tired and came back to sleep. ARMED GUARDS FUSSED ASIDE. Memories of .tho following morning are misty, but probably there were the usual parades. After midday our infantry base depot, being specially well behaved, had to provide armed guards, not for tho railway bridge- but for the two bridges over the river on the other side of Etaples. The men picked for this duty grumbled quietly as we distributed ball ammunition, for their was much sympathy with the mutineers, though these- now consisted of the riffraff of the camp rather than of justly indignant fighting soldiers. The guard for the bridge that carried the main road to Lo Touquet over the river was put under the command of a major. Tho other guard, a small one, for the railway bridge over the river was put under the orders of a young officer Of the Border Begiment. With bayonets fixed the two guards were marched off, and most of the men in the camp turned to kill time in such ways as opportunity offered. In Etaples itself there had been no redcapped military police since the first outbreak, though we noticed a group of tall, well-drilled men in the town, obviously military police in plain caps. Tho bridge over the railway was unguarded, so Etaples was open to those who ignored the order that all leave was stopped, and a number of men had left the camp and gathered in the town. When this crowd of rioters, for they were really rioters now, had pushed unhindered through Etaples they reached the main road bridge in impetuous mood and swept along towards the guard. Tho major ordered his men into two ranks, with front rank kneeling, with rifles lo.aded and bayonets at the ready, and then walked out to remonstrate with the mob. The ringleaders pressed on, arguing with him and pushing him baclv till his had to put up their bayonets to avoid wounding him. Tlic. rioters.pushed aside the rifles, went through tho guard, and continued towards Le Touqiiet. Meanwhile a smaller mob came to tho railway bridge over tho river. Tho young officer in charge ordered the mutineers to go back or bo fired upon. Some hesitated, but the ringleader took no notice of tho command and approached the youngster with a threat about the river being handy for drowning such puppies. As he came close, up went the officer's fist and'tho man was laid out. While he was being bound his comrades retreated hastily, giving no more trouble. After dark armed pickets, from our unfortunate base depot, were sent through Etaples and arrested a certain number of men, most of whom "happened" to escape in tho darkness.

Otherwise all,was quiet. Of course, rumours were plentiful. One rumoui1 ran that the mob on roaoliing Lc Touquet had attacked the house or' the Assistant Provost Marshal. Another was that Horatio Bottomely, "the defender of the Tommy, "was at headquarters and had been given control of tho situation! The most popular was that the hated Bull King was to be" abolished. ' In reality tho mutiny had played itselt out, and tho following day was free from trouble.' Then the authorities at last made a decided move and sent a l-cgimeiit of tho Seventh Division, just out the line for a Test, to guard tho river bridges in force. At this point the present writer, who had managed to avoid tho Bull King and other unpleasant duties and had explored instead the attractive country behind and beyond tho great camp, was ordered to proceed to his regiment, so missed hearing what happened to the few men.arrested. THE KIOTEES' MOTIVE. Except on the first evening there had been very little bad feeling shown, and no man in camp refused openly to obey an order. As junior officers wo had considered only two dangers possible, either that rioters might break into the canteen stores of drink and so become difficult to manage, or elso that some ol: them, as discipline'- was weakened, might invade the Waae liuts beyond the railway bridge. Unofficially we kept a casual .watch over both places and officers turned back a few men who tried to .approach the women\ huts. Probably thero was never any risk or. serious trouble, though hatred of the Bull Bing and of police authorities was fairly general; in fact, an officer was put under arrest in tho club for beginning to make a speech ot sympathy with the so-called mutineers. lhe whole protest was against the alternately dull and harassing lite, of -tho huge, unwieldy camp at Etaples rathei. than against the war itself; against those believed to bo shirkers at the base rather than against service in the "Tho last flicker of the mutiny was seen on the way up to the front with a draft of men suspected of noting ana hurried off to their units. At some largo station, name now forgotten, they caught sight of a couple ot Ived Caps. In a moment they had swarmed out of the train and had fallen upon the amazed polienien, who were chased into the town, as their fellows had been on the first day of the troubles. With the last Red Caps m lull flight tho men returned full of laughter to the train, and we all went on to tako our part-in the terrible fighting on Pasehendaele Ridge.