INQUIRY PENDING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21549, 31 October 1944, Page 3

INQUIRY PENDING

SOLDIERS’ DETENTION ARMY CAM"p~ CONDITIONS UNIONISTS 7 ”CRITICISM (Special Australian Correspondent.) (10 a.m.) SYDNEY, Oct. 30. Soldiers and ex-soldiers from many parts of Australia have declared thenwillingness to give evidence before an official inquiry into the conditions at Grovely army detention camp in Queensland. An inquiry into the camp conditions and the sentence of five years’ imprisonment on Private Jack' Wilson for alleged mutiny has been ordered by the Minister for the Army, Mr. F. M. Forde. Two other soldiers similarly accused are also serving sentences of four and five ■ ears respectively. Two ex-prisoners of the camp have made sworn statements accepting responsibility for starting the alleged mutiny, which they claim, was a sitdown strike against fg&d 'treatment and vemin-infested a§ftgl at the camp. The ease has j-ecifer*. wide pubuiiy, and a conlerCjflfc representative -f 460,000 ■ trade canonists held in Sydney lias now demanded the overof "archaic laws and rules” which made possible sentences such as that imposed on Wilson. The conference endorsed the action taken for tne re-opening of the case, and declared: "The case of Pte. Wilson is merely symbolic of the workings of Australian military rules and orders. Public disgust and indignation at the savagery of the sentence means that the people o£‘Australia demand that the archaic laws and rules, in accordance with which our defence forces are administered, be drastically amended.