MUTINY TALK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21784, 25 October 1932, Page 8

MUTINY TALK

AUSTRALIAN CRUISER ALL QUIET NOW. (From Our' Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, October 13. It lias just been revealed that there was serious unrest aboard the Australian cruiser, H.M.A.S. Australia, on that vessel's recent cruise of the Pacific. Not long before the cruiser reached Tulagi, in the Solomon Group, some men were actually talking mutiny, but all is peaceful once again now, with the discipline of the navy still intact. Strict disciplinarian methods and salutary sentences appear to have been the causes of the trouble, but it is probable that some of the ratings made mountains out of molehills whenever they had to submit to unavoidable discomforts during long periods between ports of call. There may have been reports that the pay of the ratings were to be cut when the vessels returned to Sydney. Rumours to that effect have been circulated, and they were not officially denied until some time after the fleet returned to its base in Sydney. A point of difference was the court-martial of a senior petty officer who was a gunnery instructor. Charged with insolence to a youthful midshipman, he was reduced to a leading seaman and deprived of two good conduct badges. The trouble arose during actual gunnery instruction. A petty officer was corrected about an instruction he had given, and he replied that he was giving instruction when the middy was in the nursery. Just before Tulagi was reached the officers and ratings were assembled, and Captain Brady, saying that he had received an anonymous letter warning him that trouble was likely, invited a frank statement of the discontent and unrest, but none was given. However, according to the men disciplinary methods became loss severe, and a number of sentences imposed for minor oft'ences were washed out. Among the matters for which severe sentences were inflicted were the exchange of bolts '• without permission " between two shipmates and the wearing of civilian socks on parade. Another offence for which leave was stopped for long periods was coming on board in a drunken condition, but sentences for these breaches were also wiped out after the general parade. When the vessel reached Sydney all on board were happy once again.

On the site of the old Roman camp at Colchester, England, excavators latelj unearthed a remarkably fine bronze cauldron of the Celtic period shortly before the Roman Conquest. About 2000 years old, the cauldron is nearly 2ft across, and lias two large drop handles. It is supposed to have been the loot of a Roman soldier. A I urge quantity of early British and Roman pottery, brooches and bronze ornaments have also been discovered, together •vith traces of several ditches of a Roman camp.