Nightmare Year In Portuguese African Gaol

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 637, 13 April 1929, Page 19

Nightmare Year In Portuguese African Gaol

FTfiR lying for a year in \ a West African gaol,; IfcO his cell infested with rats and other vermin. JKTj and his health impaired Second Officer A. J. Brewer, of the steamer Clan Lamont, has Returned to England. In the following graphic account of his long ordeal given when he reached Southampton, Mr. Brewer relates how, falsely acfcused of theft, he languished for 10 months in prison awaiting trial. On arrival at Southampton Mr. Brewer, who came home as the guest of the Clan Line, by whom he was employed on the Clan Lamont at the time of his arrest, stepped ashore with a Gladstone bag and a stringbound sextant as his only luggage. After going to London to lodge his , claim against the Portuguese Government for compensation for wrongful imprisonment he intended, he said, to go straight home to Plymouth. “It will be just fine to smoke the | pipe of liberty by the old fireside I have not seen for nearly two years,” he added. Mr. Brewer was arrested at Lobito, Portuguese West Africa, on December 17, 1927, and on October 23 last was sentenced to 360 days’ imprisonment, fined £lB, or an additional 90 days’ imprisonment in default, and ordered to pay the court expenses, amounting to £SO. This sentence was to date from December 17, 1927. “I Am Innocent” The charge against him was that he robbed a postmaster at Lobito of several articles originally valued at £2S> but later admitted to be worth £3 10s, which sum he was ordered to pay to the postmaster. “I am as innocent of the charge as the greatest stranger to Lobito,” lie declared, with warmth, “and 1 mean to get justice.” Mr. Brewer is a typical Mercantile Marine officer, with blue-grey eyes that can still smile on the world. Malaria fever is one of the legacies he has brought back from his cell. “I have had three bouts of the malaria on my way home,” he said, “and I contracted the disease as a result of confinement in that vile prison. After my arrest in Lobito I was taken to Benguella, and there dumped in a room 10ft. square, alive with vermin. Rat-infested Cell “The only piece of furniture was a bedstead, the spring of which consisted of three loops of iron. There was no mattress and no bedding; only a heap of straw; no chair, no ventilation, no window, no light. But there were mosquitoes, rats and other oT>noxious creatures in abundance. In this place I spent three days’ solitary confinement.

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"No food at all was brought to me during the first two days, and on the third day 1 had water and a little macaroni. I was guarded by native soldiers. Later some friends managed to have food brought to me. **l was taken before a judge who appeared to be unable to comprehend what 1 said through an interpreter. 1 did not know whether 1 was expected to answer questions with a plain ‘yes’ or ‘tio,’ or whether 1 had to explain my case. ‘Finally the judge said tso my friends who understood his language tell me), ‘1 can’t be bothered with you. You will have to go back to prison.' And back 1 went. Became Really 111 -1 think l owe it to the prosecuting counsel, who was seen on my behalf, that 1 was transferred to the hospital before l became really ill. When 1 did become seriously ill there was no question of a special diet. It was macaroni all the time. “For five months l did not have my hair cut. and I grew to look like a bobbed-hair girl. Eventually the delayed trial took place —ten months and six days after my arrest. **l was taken to a little court very similar to the English country police court. 1 was surprised to see the same judge, an aged, black-robed, surly man, presiding. 1 had been given to understand that one of the reasons lor delaying the trial was to allow them to find a judge less anti-British. “During my spell in prison l had taught myself Portuguese and was able to follow the trial fairly well. “They accused me of entering the postmaster’s house and stealing a ring, a pair of earrings and a cigurette case. The only witness who was supposed to have seen me there j was not brought to court. “Instead the postmaster told the man’s story, and it was believed, although it was demonstrated that it. was humanly impossible for me to have been in the house at the time of the theft. “After the trial 1 was taken back to the prison hospital to complete my sentence. During this last stage I was visited by men of H.M.S. Lowestoft. “They told me the whole crew was boiling with indignation at the treatment I had received, and urged me to allow them to raid the hospital and carry me off. “It was a great temptation, but it occurred to me that it was only likely to lead to complications, and I told my friends it would be as well to let things take their course, as I had only a few more weeks to spend in prison. “I could easily have escaped from prison at the beginning of the affair had I chosen, but I stupidly imagined that there would be no trouble in. proving my innocence.”