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[Page 8]

Camp 3 years ago. About this month Railway work started to connect this Camp with liverpool 4 miles distant. All the workers recieved 23 per day & rationes 26/2 Internees escapeed in following matter. They aske for permission to goe into the Bush to get some Bush timber, wich got granted. Under escort of 1 Guard they left to procure their wants. When amongst the bushes they disarmed the Guard, in taking his Gun away & tied him to a tree, wich the guard however managed to undo the rope, after an hour strenous labor, returned to Camp, to notify the officials of the daring escape. The escapees wher recaptured on the 29th led under the guard of 2 Officers 2 Military Police & 2 guards to the place wher they had hid the Rifle on the following day they wher escorted to Darlinghurst jail to await trial. From their they managed to escape again & recaptured on the 7th November laying alongside a Country road about 15 miles from Sydney in imitation Uniform of the Australian I.F. in company of a Australian Soldiers. They wher charged on their arrest with breaking & entering & stealing 2 watches. At the trial however it got proven that the Aust Soldier had comitted the crime. The soldier wher sentenced for desertion & stealing. The Internees for desertion only.

[the following is a small cutting from a newspaper]

It is true that Senator Pearce has notoriously failed in his duty as an administrator of the Defence Department. A Royal Commission has found that under his administration huge sums of public money were wasted, and that his management was inefficient and unbusinesslike. Senator Pearce refused to resign his office after this condemnation. He contented himself with sacrificing subordinate officers while he clung to place and pay himself.

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