LEAVING AUSTRALIA

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 112, 5 February 1931, Page 8

LEAVING AUSTRALIA

Stowaways Reach England FLED FROM HARDSHIPS ' ' London, February 2. Nine stowaways on the steamer Treherbert, charged at Swansea, pleaded guilty. The owners’ counsel said that he understood the conditions in Australia were very bad, but the stowaway business was becoming such an intolerable nuisance and expense to shipowners that he was instructed to prosecute in every case. It was stated in evidence that the men were discovered a day out from Western Australia. The captain put them to work, and they gave no trouble throughout the trip. Each told a moving story of conditions in Western Australia, and how they hdd tramped hundreds of miles seekin^,he°Magistrate said he sympathised with their plight, and in consideration that they had worked and behaved well, he sentenced them to a day’s impnsonTen stowaways on the Rio Dorado arrived at Glasgow, two being Australians, one a West American negro, and the remainder were British. They described the hardships they had undergone in Australia. Harry McDougall, of Dundee, said that he had walked from Queensland to West Australia. L. Temple declared that the stowaways could not ma ke sufficient money to keep themselves. When we were employed.” he said, we were given food of the worst description at the camps; also 5/- a week. We decided to make a dash for Home. .We were willing to suffer imprisonment m Britain rather than continue to meet such hardships down under.”