Primary tabs
Transcription
Because of these recurrent attempts to escape it was sometimes life-threatening to take a walk in the darkness of night. As soon as you came too close to the barbed wire a guard would yell at you, and if you were deep in conversation with a comrade, you might not realise that the guard was challenging you. And so it happened on several occasions that the guard actually shot at you.
24th June 1915. The last few days were, apart from the rebellion in Singapore, the most eventful so far in my internment. As a result of the deplorable conditions, the bad treatment and, in particular, the forced labour, anger and bitterness towards the camp’s management had been steadily growing. There had been several discussions about a strike as the only possibility in Australia to force about a change, but so far a lack of agreement had prevented action. There had to be some more incidents for the last straw.
On Monday, 15th of June, the afternoon labour gangs to which my 9th company belongs did not return until 5.30pm, when we others had already lined up for the roll-call,