FASCISTS' ESCAPE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24084, 1 October 1941, Page 8

FASCISTS' ESCAPE

ISLE OF MAN CAMP BURROWED WAY OUT FIGHTING AMONG INTERNEES LONDON, Sept. 29 A sentry at the internment camp at Peel, in the Isle of Man, where riots have been caused recently by Fascist internees, discovered the secret of the escape of three internees. It was a tunnel burrowed from the centre of the camp to a field. The burrowing must have occupied weeks, but the men avoided detection by distributing the excavated earth throughout the camp. The tunnel is now sealed. Fighting broke out between internees last night. Doctors treated those injured in the morning. Demands are growing for much sterner measures. The governor of the island iulonned the Peel Town Commissioners that steps are being taken for better protection of the townspeople. The camp authorities announced a curtailment of the visits of the wives of internees and a weekly limit of 10s for parcels for internees. LAX CONTROL ALLEGED BRITISH PRESS INDIGNANT SCATHING CRITICISM MADE LONDON. Sept. '23 Widespread public indignation at the "appeasement." treatment of Fascist internees on the Isle of .Man is reflected in bitter leading articles and other press comment. Several newspapers are urging an official inquiry into the facts and sterner control in camp organisation. "Cassandra," columnist of the Daily Mirror, describes the Fascists who rioted in the internment camp at Peel as "600 Blackshirt gorillas, Mosley's muscle men, trying to burst open their cage on the Isle of Man." Referring to the appeal to maintain order made to the internees by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Home Office, Mr. Osbert Peake, "Cassandra" says: "Greeted by jeers and catcalls, a Home Office • bigwig turned jon charm and did his diplomatic damnedest to soothe the ruffled feelings of these hoodlums. Sheer physical exhaustion brought the island revolt to a temporary peace. Bricks and Bottles "Truly, the Fascist's disease sleeps easily in our bowels. The symptoms are glaring and the germ,-if allowed to spread, would prove fatal, yet we deny ourselves a clean surgical cut and the plague breeds on." The Evening Standard's diarist says: "A gallant 600 threw bricks and bottles at the guards and some soldiers were injured. Mr. Peake appealed to the thugs not to go on rioting, please, in their own interests. Only the Foreign Office, fresh from the Persian triumph, could have handled the job more deliberately." In a cartoon, the News Chronicle shows Mr. Peake being hit with a brick while he, black-coated and carrying an umbrella, appeals to a raging mob behind barbed-wire: "Really, gentlemen, is this cricket?" Inquiry Demanded Mr. A. J. Cummings, in the News Chronicle, states: "I hope there will be a stern official inquiry into the facts. One can imagine what would have happened if the same kind of mutiny had broken out in a prisoners' camp in Germany. These men should have been forced under arrest, without parley and without argument, and promptly and severely punished. "The way the situation was handled was bad for camp discipline and bad for discipline everywhere. Soldiers, who had heen ordered not to fire, suffered hurts and indignities without action being taken. Why did not the actingcommandant take drastic action? Why did Mr. Peake. who seems to have heen sent for as a last desperate resort bv an impotent administration, try to appease the rioters as if they were no worse than an over-excited group of schoolboys out for a lark'?"