D.P.'s Fly A Black Flag As Sign Of Mutiny

Wanganui Chronicle, 20 November 1950, Page 5

D.P.'s Fly A Black Flag As Sign Of Mutiny

SYDNEY, Nov. 19 (Recd. 6 p.m.). —Three hundred new Australians in a migration camp at Cowra lowered the Australian flag at the camp and ran up a home-made black flag as a symbol of mutiny. They refused to eat camp rations. They were protesting against a change in their diet.

The whole camp of 3500 men, women and children is threatening to join the hunger strike today. The migrants are former displaced persons from Central Europe. They say their actions are results of a 40 per cent eut in the camp rations. There was no hunger strike or demonstration at the Cowra migration camp today stated a late message, but officials fear trouble will break out afresh tomorrow.

Women of a block who yesterday flew a black flag as a symbol of mutiny against the new food ration system, threatened today that they would do' "something terrible" tomorrow if the ration is not restored. Under a new system, the egg ration has been reduced from four a week to one a week. Thirty five pound of bread dally to each 100 people has been reduced to 18 pound daily. Vegetables and fruit also have been cut, but meat and milk have been affected only to a limited extent. A camp official said today that some of the Australian workers in the camp were scared of the migrant women.

“When they talk about killing people with knives, it is not all imagination. They are a volatile crowd, and likely to do anything on the spur of the moment,” he said.