The Fourteen Men Sent Aboard
In mid-1917 the minister of defense, James Allen, decided that objectors who had finished serving their first sentence should be sent overseas and treated as soldiers in hope that their efforts of conscientious objection will fall short in the pressure of war.
On 13 July the commanding officer at Trentham, Colonel H. R. Potter decided that his prison was overcrowded and there was a troopship in Wellington Harbour due to sail the next day. He rounded up 14 conscientious objectors from the Terrace Gaol and had them taken to the ship – the Waitemata. All these conscientious objectors were working class and their reasons for objecting varied: some were Irish and did not want to fight for England; others held personal, religious or socialist beliefs. These men included
1. John Baxter
2. Archibald Baxter
3. Alexander Baxter
4. Mark Briggs
5. William Little
6. Fred Adin
7. L. Penwright
8. Harry Patton
9. Albert Ernest Sanderson
10. Garth Carsley Ballantyne
11. David Robert Grey
12. Daniel Maguire
13. L.J Kirwan
14. Thomas Percy Harland
According to Briggs:
When we reached the foot of the gangway, one of the boys in the front rank shouted: ‘Are we going to walk up the gangway, Mark?’ I replied: ‘Certainly not.’ We were then seized and forced up the gangway. As they were taking me up I called out to the wharf labourers: ‘You can tell the citizens of Wellington that there are eight conscientious objectors forcibly deported in civvie clothes from New Zealand.’ They replied: ‘You have our sympathy.’ I answered back: ‘We want more than that.’
The 14 men were placed into a small cabin. Twelve of them became seasick once the ship hit the open seas, the cabin was cramped and with no contains or bathroom facilities, the small cabin soon became a very unhygienic den for the 14 men. An officer remarked that: ‘the place smelt like a hyena’s cage.’
The 14 men were taken out to the deck were they were forcibly undressed standing naked in front of crowds of cheering soldiers, authorities were trying to break the conscientious objectors wills and humiliate them. There was mixed opinions from the soldiers on deck most threw insults at the resistors, but there were some men who supported their efforts, “stick it out! Stick to our principles.” Some of the enforcer felt pity for the 14 men and when a man was putting on Baxter’s uniform he said “don’t blame us. Don’t blame us. We don’t want to do it. We have to”. The men however did still resist to wear the uniform and when they were in the clink, they began to take their uniform off and as a consequence were tied up in rope. The heads of the conscientious objectors were forcibly shaved, six men had to hold down Mark Briggs to get his hair shopped and his head was cut in the struggle, none of the conscientious objectors envisioned the great lengths that were taken to try break the will of the 14 men.
On 13 July the commanding officer at Trentham, Colonel H. R. Potter decided that his prison was overcrowded and there was a troopship in Wellington Harbour due to sail the next day. He rounded up 14 conscientious objectors from the Terrace Gaol and had them taken to the ship – the Waitemata. All these conscientious objectors were working class and their reasons for objecting varied: some were Irish and did not want to fight for England; others held personal, religious or socialist beliefs. These men included
1. John Baxter
2. Archibald Baxter
3. Alexander Baxter
4. Mark Briggs
5. William Little
6. Fred Adin
7. L. Penwright
8. Harry Patton
9. Albert Ernest Sanderson
10. Garth Carsley Ballantyne
11. David Robert Grey
12. Daniel Maguire
13. L.J Kirwan
14. Thomas Percy Harland
According to Briggs:
When we reached the foot of the gangway, one of the boys in the front rank shouted: ‘Are we going to walk up the gangway, Mark?’ I replied: ‘Certainly not.’ We were then seized and forced up the gangway. As they were taking me up I called out to the wharf labourers: ‘You can tell the citizens of Wellington that there are eight conscientious objectors forcibly deported in civvie clothes from New Zealand.’ They replied: ‘You have our sympathy.’ I answered back: ‘We want more than that.’
The 14 men were placed into a small cabin. Twelve of them became seasick once the ship hit the open seas, the cabin was cramped and with no contains or bathroom facilities, the small cabin soon became a very unhygienic den for the 14 men. An officer remarked that: ‘the place smelt like a hyena’s cage.’
The 14 men were taken out to the deck were they were forcibly undressed standing naked in front of crowds of cheering soldiers, authorities were trying to break the conscientious objectors wills and humiliate them. There was mixed opinions from the soldiers on deck most threw insults at the resistors, but there were some men who supported their efforts, “stick it out! Stick to our principles.” Some of the enforcer felt pity for the 14 men and when a man was putting on Baxter’s uniform he said “don’t blame us. Don’t blame us. We don’t want to do it. We have to”. The men however did still resist to wear the uniform and when they were in the clink, they began to take their uniform off and as a consequence were tied up in rope. The heads of the conscientious objectors were forcibly shaved, six men had to hold down Mark Briggs to get his hair shopped and his head was cut in the struggle, none of the conscientious objectors envisioned the great lengths that were taken to try break the will of the 14 men.