PRISON MUTINY

Wairarapa Daily Times, 26 January 1932, Page 5

PRISON MUTINY

DARTMOOR AFFAIR A WILD SCENE. .Press Association Electric Telegraph-Copyright LONDON, Monday. In connection with the mutiny of prisoners at the Dartmoor Prison, further details show that the alarm was first communicated to Prineetown residents by a warder whose nose was broken in the first scuffle. Ho rushed outside the prison gates, blood streaming down his face, and told women who were waiting, alarmed by the noise, to return to their homes and lock themselves in.

Many farmers were advised by tele phono of the possibility of convicts raids.

The Rev. Mr. Scholcs, prison chaplain, also was attacked, convicts taking his keys and releasing others, who joined their comrades, shouting: “Set fire to the prison. Let’s get the Governor. ’ ’

Tho Governor, Mr. Roberts, tried vainly to reason with the mutineers and eventually found refuge in a cell. The convicts also assaulted the Prison Commissioner, Colonel Turner, whom a loyal c-onvict, who was serving a life sentence, freed and locked safely in a cell. Police officers admitted that it was one of the most critical situations they had ever faced.

When the Plymouth police marched in they found the convicts armed with table legs, axe handles, stockings filled with nails, and brickbats. They were perched on the roofs of sheds. The Chief Constable, Mr. Wilson, tried to parley and was greeted with showers of brickbats. He turned and said: “Get at ’em boys. It’s no good talking.”

The police, armed with truncheons, rushed the walls and roofs and dragged the convicts off. It was a case of hitting hard and quickly.

111 ten minutes the convicts in that quarter had disappeared, after which there was not much difficulty in rounding them all up and placing them under lock and key.

Dartmoor prison is a granite stronghold bleakly situated 300 feet above sea-level on the Devonshire moors, which are threaded- by streams and morasses and often shrouded by fogs. There are few roads, and escape is difficult.

The prison was built in ISO 9 to house Napoleonic prisoners of war, and was the scene, in 1815, of the shooting of seven American prisoners of war after the war of 1812.

The only instance parelleling the present outbreak was a fatal mutiny in ISBO, when a quarry gang attacked a warder. The ringleader was fatally shot and the others were recaptured.

THE CASUALTIES.

LONDON, Monday

The latest report from Dartmoor states that only five warders were injured and that eighty-four convicts were shot and batoned, of whom 20 are in hospital. The damage, largely by fire, is estimated at £IO,OOO. The rebel convicts raided the officers’ canteen and drank freely until the Plymouth contingent of police arrived in cars, Mr. Roberts entered the prison service as a warder after the Armistice, having served in the Scots Greys, and is noted among prison governors for his advanced views on the treatment of prisoners. Ho has been described as the most humane governor in- the service.

PRISONER'S PLUCK.

LONDON, Monday

A hundred extra police remained in the vicinity of Dartmoor throughout the night. Many warders went about their duties swathed in bandages. The courtyard was floodlighted and armed guards patrolled the prison. Two machine gun squads were ordered to Dartmoor at the height of the riot, but were not required. It is revealed that a life-sentence prisoner named Donovan saved the life of Commissioner Turner, who was visiting the prison to inquire into grievances. Donovan rushed between Colonel Turner and a band of convicts armed with crowbars. It looked as if the pair would be killed, but Donovan displayed the greatest pluck and turned the attack. Donovan, with' two others, was convicted of murder in 1928 and reprived an hour before execution. He is now a changed man and says if ever he has the luck to come out of prison he is going to show people that there is an Unseen,

EX-COHVTCT’S STORY,

(Received Tuesday, 10.1 b a.m.) LONDON, Monday

“The mutiny was planned months ago,” declared Jacobus Yandyn, who was recently released from Dartmoor. “I was asked to distribute keys to desperate characters who intended to release other prisoners, overpower warders and escape during a foggy night. Dartmoor is so dismal that men will do anything to escape the terrible monotony of living deaths. The walls of the prison are so damp that water trickles on the heads of the sleeping convicts. The porridge is uneatable, owing to the oats being stored in the damp, and the bread so bad that eight barrels are filled with leavings. The governor was disliked, despite his considerateness. The food was the principal cause of the discontent. The warders are decent fellows who simply did their duty. •’ ’

Sir Herbert Samuel conferred with Home Office officials and discussed the punishment of the ringleaders and also

the exercising of leniency towards Donovan and other special cases. Residents who climbed trees when the fighting was at its height declare that they saw several men shot. The authorities, however, decline to. make a statement on the subject, but additional doctors were summoned. PRISONERS’ GRIEVANCES. (Received Tuesday, 11.55 a.m.) LONDON, Monday. All the convicts at Dartmoor are confined- in cells. To-day the guards were trebled at the chief points on the prison walls, and troops were held in readiness at Plymouth, but nothing happened. The newspapers give prominence to Donovan’s rescue of Col. Turner, publishing photographs of the convict and the details of the last-minute reprieve from the death sentence in 1928, even after the scaffold had been erected. Correspondents are already suggesting Donovan’s release for his bravery, and offers of employment are being made. The poor quality of the food, the dampness of the cells, and the general treatment of the prisoners are the chief grievances of the convicts, whose act of incendiarism has brought its own punishment in the destruction of the heating system, causing them to shiver in their cells on the season s frostiest morning. It is freely suggested that the amount of liberty allowed to prisoners to mingle in the yards and grounds enabled them to plot the exact moment of the rising, and collect weapons.