DUCKING A BOER REPORTER.

Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue 83, 4 October 1902, Page 13 (Supplement)

DUCKING A BOER REPORTER.

The story of a mock court-martial of a Capetown civilian by a number of British officers, whjch prompted Mr. Swift MacNeill to ask Mr. Sfe John Brodrick for information in the House of Commons recently, is (according to the Sydney Daily Telegraph) an extraordinary one. A section of officers at Capetown decided to give a dance at the Mount Nelson Hotel on Christmas Eve. Mr. Hardwicke Stanford was asked to join them. Invitations were issued, and the promoters of 'the affair asked if they might have the services of the infantry band to furnish the music. A ' reply in the affirmative -was given by those in authority on condition that Mr. Stanford, whose name was doAvn on the committee, should retire. The dance was held, and during the evening some friends of Mr. Stanford warned him that something would happen to him unless he left the building. He^declined to do so. About 2 o'clock in .the mornihg ten or a dozen of the officers inveigled him into a room of the hotel, and court-martialled him. After they had kept him in the room for two hours, they earned him into the grounds at the back of the notel, and threw him into a pond. They had previously shaved off one side of his moustache. He was next dragged out of the pond, stripped, and photographed. All this occurred in the presence of several ladies, who were perched in the hotel windows. It was 5 o'clock in the morning, and clear daylight. These playful officers afterwards threw their victim into the pond again. Eventually they let him go, after drawing up a paper which they asked him to sign. Several times he refused, But after being knocked about a good deal he signed the document, which was to the effect that the whole thing was a joke. At 6 o'clock in the morning they turned him out of the hotel. One of their number, a little more tender-hearted than the rest, suggested they should let him have a dry suit of clothes, while a wag suggested pyjamas, which were offered him, but refused. Eventually he beat a retreat in his wet clothes, and sent for his medical man, who found him bruised from head to foot. Stanford sued his assailants for £2000 damages, and the ca&e came before the Court at Capetown oa 7th May. It was settled on defendants promising to give him £1500 and to pay his costs in full. In addition, each officer was to write him a letter of apology. He has nofc'vet received a penny of the damages, and the case was not reported' in any of the Capetown papers, owing to the action of the press censoiv Mr. Stanford is a Cape Boer man, and a reporter of society matters. The affair was the topic of the day in Capetown.