CHARGES OF CRUELTY.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume V, Issue 1358, 20 June 1918, Page 8

CHARGES OF CRUELTY.

TREATMENT OF OBJECTORS. THE WANGANUI ALLEGATIONS. [Special to The Sun.] WELLINGTON, June 19. The Minister of Defence announced to-day that a Magisterial inquiry is to be held regarding the treatment of conscientious objectors and other military offenders at the Wanganui Detention Barracks. The Minister has received official reports that seem to disprove the statements that have been, put into general circulation, but he considers that further inquiry is necessary. The Magistrate will begin his work at once. The reports that are to bo investigated are to the effect that men who have refused to perform military service have been subjected to a great deal of pressure, amounting to actual physical cruelty, at the detention barracks. The old Wanganui gaol was set aside recently for the reception of military prisoners as a detention barracks. The stories that have been told by the friends and sympathisers of men at present in the barracks have been denied emphatically by the officers concerned. The Minister hopes that the inquiry will clear up the whole matter.