£9OOO for British Officer

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6618, 3 August 1931, Page 10

£9OOO for British Officer

TWENTY YEAR-OLD INJUSTICE RECALLED. ARREST ERROR. LONDON, July 1. The Daily Express understands that a sum of £9OOO is to be paid by the Portuguese Government to Major Archibald Neil Campbell for his arrest and captivity in a Portuguese gunboat in the Zambesi river twenty years ago. This is the award of the Belgian Arbitration Court, over w]iich the former Belgian Prime Minister, Count Carton do Wiart, presided, and which was set up at the instance of the British and Portuguese Governments. The arrest aud captivity of Major Campbell was one of the most remarkable dramas of the African bush. Major Campbell at the time was engaged in gold-mining exploration in tho Tcte district of Portuguese East Africa, about 5000 miles up the Zambesi river. He was a sick man recovering from a sovero illness.

An armed force of Europeans and natives suddenly swooped down on his house at daybreak, and carried him—ho was too ill to walk —prisoner to Tcte. Various charges were preferred against him, including allegations of ill-treating the natives, disobedience of authority, and generally disturbing the district. The Foreign Oflico intervened, and eventually Major Compbcll was released on bail, and now, after 20 years, his long fight for justice has come to an end.