WALKED OFF ORION

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 152, 26 December 1945, Page 5

WALKED OFF ORION

500 BRITISH TROOPS

LONDON, December 24.

Five hundred British troops walked off the troopship Orion at Liverpool yesterday in protest against the accommodation and sanitary arrangements on board, says the "Daily Mail." The men were among 5000 British troops who embarked in the Orion yesterday afternoon. The vessel was due to sail later in the day for the Far East.

The men who walked off held protest meetings on the quayside. It is believed that they objected to sailing from England so close to Christmas. Military and civil police guarded all the entrances to the dock. The men afterwards returned to the ship, but today they swarmed off again and joined in a melee with military police on the dockside. Correspondents say that the Liverpool authorities had earlier assured them that everything in the troopship had been returned to normal. Correspondents were unable to see for themselves because of the military cordon round the dock, but witnesses reported that a few men left the ship by drop ladders. Military police detained them. Watching comrades then threw over scramble nets and climbed down in an attempt to release the men detained. Others who remained aboard threw tin cans and other objects at high military officials on the quay. It is understood that several, including military police, were injured during the skirmish. The military police are believed to have used batons, but there were soon sufficient troops on the quayside to capture the gangway, which was lifted into position. Many more nnen rushed off the ship till upward of 300 were demonstrating. Military police cordons barred exits from the dockshed.

The men were addressed by army officers, who explained the difficult situation, and they returned aboard. The Orion then sailed.