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great anger over this coercion. Without coercion many would probably agree to work anyway to beat boredom. But payment is pitiful. They have budgeted 1/.- per day, but only
8/6d is paid every 14 days. Of the rest, 6d are deducted for the kitchen personnel, who are
paid more than the 1/.- budgeted by the government; the balance of 5/.- is allegedly being paid into a bank account so that everybody will have some money once the war is over. Since a great many of the older people have been interned for 6-7 months, the preserved amount is said to total more than 20,000.- already. Since the going rate for ordinary workers is about 7-15/.- per day, but the prisoners work for only 1/.-, the government saves an enormous amount of money this way.
The camp is led by Major Sands, who is said to own a paper mill in Sydney and to be a
Sterling £ millionaire. He rarely shows up in camp and acts pretty tough, sporting a look of:
‘’All this is under my command.’’