GAMBIA — PRISONERS IN BATHURST GAOL.—OBSERVATIONS.

HC Deb 30 July 1869 vol 198 cc1048-53

MR. BUXTON, who had given notice to move an Address for Copy of a Petition and other Documents forwarded by the Merchants and other Inhabitants of Bathurst, Gambia, to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, relative to the treatment of Prisoners in the Gaol, said, he wished to call attention to the ex- traordinary proceedings of Admiral Patey, the Administrator of the Gambia, as regarded his treatment of the negro prisoners in the gaol, and he must observe that the statement he was about to make rested on unimpeachable authority. He should quote only from the evidence given by the gaoler himself, by the head turnkey, and Dr. Jeans, the surgeon of the gaol. A coroner's inquest was held upon one of the prisoners who had died, and the verdict of the jury was that his death had been caused by shot drill and treadmill labour. Upon this an inquiry was instituted, and the evidence he should quote was given by the persons he had referred to, but was entirely corroborated by that of the prisoners themselves, and he must say that the case against Admiral Patey appeared to be so strong that the Government was bound not to let the matter rest, but to consider whether he was not wholly unfit for his very responsible and important situation at the Gambia. The gaoler showed in the first place, that the Governor, Admiral Patey, had the entire control of the gaol. It was altogether his doing that the prisoners were subjected to the treatment which he (Mr. Buxton) was about to describe. Admiral Patey regulated the hard labour without reference to the sheriff or the visiting justices. The facts proved at the inquiry were these:— The prisoners had two meals in the day —namely, some boiled rice at ten o'clock, and a very small allowance of bread and meat at five o'clock. But the food was stated by the surgeons to be insufficient, and was far below that given to prisoners in any well-managed gaol. However, they had their second meal at five o'clock, and were then locked up in their cells. At about half-past five the next morning they were woke up, and went to work. They were at hard labour from that time until they came in at halfpast nine, having then been 16½- hours without food, and even then they were not allowed to go to their breakfast, but were put to shot drill for half-an-hour. The shot drill was thus described. It was done in a circle. The men were marched round, at each four paces putting down and taking up a ball and carrying it. The shot was a 24-poundor. At first," said the gaoler, "we had only 18-pounders, but Admiral Patey said they were too light, and caused us to get 24-pounders. The prisoners marched round, putting down and taking up the balls continuously during the drill. Dr. Waters, the Staff Assistant Surgeon, justly says:— I think the prison diet insufficient. I think also that a man who has been sixteen and a-half hours without food is not fit to be put on shot drill. Evidence to exactly the same effect was given by the colonial surgeon, Dr. Jeans, and indeed it obviously was outrageous that a man should be put to this very severe work after being from sixteen and a-half hours to seventeen hours without food, and that food itself very insufficient. After the shot drill was over the men were at length allowed to go to their breakfast of plain boiled rice. They were then sent to work again until half-past four, and were then put upon the treadmill, and the gaoler said— There is no board on our treadmill on which a prisoner can rest if tired, and if he relaxes he would fall down….Sometimes they do fall down. This happens frequently. When some drop down I put on others…. On the treadmill the prisoners fall down sweating, appearing very much tired. All prisoners sentenced to hard labour are put to shot drill and treadmill without distinction and without reference to their offences. The cook and hospital attendant have to go. My orders are to put any prisoners sentenced to hard labour to shot drill and treadmill. If a prisoner is sentenced to seven days' hard labour in default of payment of a fine, he is treated the same as a felon. The prisoners are put to hard labour as I have described it without any examination of their physical fitness. The gaoler seemed to have been strongly impressed with the cruelty of the system, and as soon as Admiral Patey went away on leave he stopped the shot drill and treadmill labour; but as soon as the Admiral returned they were resumed, in addition to the ordinary labour. The attention of the gaoler was also called to an entry in the diary — "May 9, Whipped six prisoners." He said— They were tied up and flogged with a cat, The Governor did not fix the number of lashes, but told me to tell the sheriff to give John Day and — Jie a good flogging. Dr. Jeans, the colonial surgeon, was examined with reference to these floggings, and he said that Day was flogged though he had just come out of a very dangerous illness. Dr. Jeans added that he had felt special interest for Day '' because he had been excessively sick." He (Mr. Buxton) had no wish to detain the House, but the brief statement he had made was, he thought, quite enough to show that great and unreasonable cruelties had been exercised upon the prisoners in Bathurst Gaol, and he trusted the Secretary for the Colonies would make further inquiry into the case and would publish any correspondence that bore upon the subject.

MR. E. N. FOWLER

said, he was persuaded that the state of things upon the West Coast of Africa demanded the attention of the Government. Some years ago he had pressed upon the present Secretary of State for War, at that time Secretary of State for the Colonies, the hardship inflicted upon a gentleman of good position practising as a member of the bar at Trinidad, who had been recommended by three successive Governors for the Attorney Generalship of Sierra Leone, and had also filled the position of Acting Chief Justice, and yet was degraded in consequence of a misunderstanding with the Governor. He would not trouble the House with the details of the case now, but would be glad to mention the matter privately to the right hon. Gentleman opposite.

MR. A. JOHNSTON

said, he regretted that the whole subject of the West African Settlements had not been brought under consideration. A case at Cape Coast Castle had come under his knowledge in which, in consequence of some very trifling dispute, a gentleman of good position had been confined in a most filthy dungeon. He regretted to find among his hon. Friends below the Gangway a desire to restrict British operations upon the coast of Africa. If the snail-like policy of withdrawal was to be adopted, he trusted the full-grown prosperous colonies would be allowed to shift for themselves in the first instance, and that we should not give up our protection and our influence over the native races, and in doing so abandon some of the most glorious traditions of the British Empire.

MR. MONSELL

said, he hoped his hon. Friend who had spoken last would give him the particulars of the case to which he referred—he would then cause inquiries to be made with reference to it. His hon. Friend opposite (Mr. R. N. Fowler) had also mentioned a quarrel on the West Coast of Africa. To what cause it was to be attributed, whether to a tropical epidemic, to something peculiar in the character of the West Coast, or to the contact with barbarous races he was unable to say, but the officials upon that coast certainly seemed to spend a vast amount of time in fighting with each other. Statements very similar to those read by the hon. Member for East Surrey (Mr. Buxton) had been received at the Colonial Office; but unfortunately those statements were founded on investigations conducted entirely by persons who were the known enemies of Admiral Patey. The complaint against the Admiral resolved itself into a charge, not of having introduced any improper system of punishments, for the hard labour and shot drill were believed to be perfectly proper in themselves by the Director of Convict Prisons, to whom the matter had been referred, but of having introduced this system without taking those precautions which the climate and the circumstances of the persons to be subjected to the punishment required. The Government had done precisely what his hon. Friend suggested. In the first place, they referred this statement to the Director of Convict Prisons, and then addressed the Governor-in-Chief of the West African Colonies, directing him to have inquiry made, and at once to remedy the grievances complained of, if any such were found to exist, to inquire further as to the conduct of the administration and the management of the gaol. To that letter no reply had yet been received, probably on account of the lamentable visitation of cholera at Gambia, one of the most severe, he believed, upon record. In meeting this visitation, those who had brought complaints against Admiral Patey took no part whatever, but held their hands. Admiral Patey, on the other hand, and one or two other gentlemen, exerted themselves in a manner deserving the highest praise. They buried the dead with their own hands, and went about among the suffering, and did all that lay in their power to relieve them; and this, certainly, had led him to believe that there could not be that inhumanity in Admiral Patey's disposition which was alleged in the complaints about the gaols. With one remark made by his hon. Friend (Mr. A. Johnston) he could not agree. Considering the difficulty there was in administering properly the affairs of these colonies, in contending with the climate, and in controlling the various officials—difficulties which, he believed, had been felt quite as strongly by former Governments as by the present—he certainly thought that if we could manage to draw in our horns on that coast, and get rid of some of our West African settlements, it would be a decided advantage. The necessity which at one time existed of keeping up these establishments in connection with the efforts for the suppression of the slave trade no longer existed; and he believed their relinquishment now would be attended with advantage to this country, and would not be injurious to the settlements themselves. As far as he could see, the general tendency of things upon that coast was far more to barbarize the Europeans than it was to civilize the natives.