大象传媒

Continuation of the report written by George Whalley, 2nd Radio Officer aboard CRITON

The port of Freetown was in the Spring of 1941 very busy dealing with distressed seamen, there being about 400 or 500 awaiting ships to carry them to England. A large number of these men were given passages in an ex-Vichy French passenger vessel named the BANFORA, some of the men manning the ship and the remainder as passengers. In addition to the BANFORA there was another Vichy ship which had been seized in the British blockade of French West Africa and this small cargo vessel was called the CRITON. It was on board this latter vessel that I, in company with several other released internees, signed-on to man the ship for a passage to England when the CRITON was to go before the Prize Court. All the crew were men who had either recently lost their ships through enemy action or had just been released from internment, with the exception of the native firemen who came from Sierra Leone.

After several delays the CRITON sailed from Freetown in convoy but 24 hours out it was found that the ship could not maintain the necessary speed and we were told to return to Freetown as quickly as possible - unaccompanied, of course. Owing to various factors the ship sighted land the next daybreak some distance from Freetown, to the north, and it was necessary to go fairly close inshore to fix the ship's position. As we found out later, we headed close into the port of Conakry, French Guinea, before recognising our position and then altered course for Freetown. Shortly afterwards it became obvious that we were being followed by a fast vessel and after a short interval this vessel signalled to us to stop our engines and not to use our radio transmitter. We did, however, radio to Freetown that we were being molested. The pursuing vessel then fired a shot which landed just ahead of the CRITON, and then overtook us at all speed. It is evident that any doubts that this naval craft had as to our identity were dispelled by our radio transmission, and immediately she came within hailing distance her commander demanded that we return to Conakry immediately. Our Captain was not prepared to do this as we had a cargo on board which he did not want to fall into Vichy hands and he stalled, playing for time, and hoping that Freetown would send us assistance if we could hold out long enough. To hasten us in our decision the Vichy ship then fired at us with her machine guns and turned her gun in the bow directly on to our bridge. Realising that we could hold out no longer our captain then gave the signal to abandon ship and we took to the lifeboats, being threatened with machine-guns the whole time. Immediately we were in the lifeboats the Vichy ship started to shell the CRITON and fired at least 25 shells into her at pointblank range. Having thoroughly disabled the ship by shelling her bridge, engine room, wireless room, etc., the Vichy vessel came alongside the lifeboats and we were hustled on board in great haste, their fear - and our hope - being that Freetown would send out a destroyer to investigate. Once on board this vessel we were kept under surveillance and taken with all speed to the port of Conakry where we were handed over to the Police authorities for internment.

The internment camp at "7 kilometres", Conakry, was situated on a swamp some four miles out of the town, and consisted of a number of huts made of branches of trees and thatching. These huts were typically native, circular in shape with a diameter of about 17 feet. A pole went up the centre to support the roof and the only means of ventilation was through the doorway, and through gaps between the branches which formed the sides. A platform of branches ran round the inside of the huts at a height of about 2' 6" and extended from the sides towards the centre pole. Upon this platform we were to sleep, no beds being supplied. We were given old army blankets, one per man, and some of these were so small that they would extend from the neck to the thighs only. We were also supplied with Army mess-tins, cutlery and aluminium cups. There were already quite a large number of men interned when we arrived at this camp, but we were separated from them by barbed wire and sentries were posted to prevent our communicating with the others. Right from the start we were given to understand that the crew of the CRITON were different from those other internees who had landed in lifeboats on the coast of French Guinea. This distinction was made, of course, because we had been captured in a French vessel. Several days after we were landed we were visited by two French naval officers who asked the Captain if he had scuttled the ship or sabotaged her in any way before taking to the lifeboats. This had not been done, and on receiving a negative reply the Frenchmen then made it plain that it would be better for us and for themselves if the Captain would sign a paper saying that he had scuttled the vessel before she was shelled. Our Captain flatly refused to accede to this suggestion.

Our food was supplied from an hotel in the town and was brought out to the camp in a motorcar. Usually it was stone cold on arrival and generally it consisted of rice, spinach, or egg-plant. Each morning the car brought a cup of coffee and a small loaf for each man and the two meals of the day were delivered about noon and 5.30 p.m. The food was always poor in quality and short in quantity. On one occasion the doctor from the Hospital and the lady representative of the French Red Cross, Madame Moulet, were at the camp when the evening meal arrived. Both of these persons inspected the food and expressed the opinion that it was not fit for pigs and that there was not sufficient for one half the number of men. As a result of Madame Moulet's protest to the authorities she was curtly told not to interfere in matters which did not concern her and was forbidden any further visits to the camp. We were told that the hotel which supplied the food was being paid 40 francs per day for each internee, but enquiries into the cost of rice, etc., produced the opinion that we could have been fed on similar lines for much less than 10 francs per day.

We had many well-wishers among the civilian population of Conakry and this was manifested in the occasional passing over the barrier of a stalk of bananas, two or three cakes, etc. Persons found doing this were liable to imprisonment, and one individual did actually get into gaol for giving us bananas. The British Anglican priest in Conakry, Father de Coteau, was very good indeed in the way he looked after our interests, but he was constantly meeting with obstructionism on the part of the authorities. In fact, this priest had promises made to him of over 100,000 francs from various well-wishers, and it was his idea to take over the feeding of the internees completely for three or four days of each week in order that we might get at least a square meal every other day. Permission to do this was refused and the police tightened their supervision to such an extent that the promises of money which de Coteau had gathered were of very little practical use. Lack of consideration and a complete absence of organisation by the authorities often led to unnecessary hardships. As an example of this I would quote the occasion when about 30 men arrived in the camp after 17 days in lifeboats. They were absolutely famished and had the appearance of walking skeletons. It was not until two or three days after their arrival that the food supplies were increased to cater for these famished men, and in the meantime we had to share our already meagre rations with them. As we had barely enough to exist upon, you can imagine the effect on our meals of such an increase of the personnel. The Hospital at Conakry placed two wards at the disposal of the internees, a matter of about 30 beds, and these beds were always full. Out of a total of nearly 100 men never less than 30 were in hospital at any time, and often men who were really ill could not get a bed and had to remain in the camp.

The hard conditions prevailing in the camp, complete lack of comfort, the necessity to trudge through ankle keep mud to answer the calls of nature, and the lying on uncomfortable branches with rain constantly dripping in, were not conducive to quick recovery. On one or two occasions when men expressed themselves as unfit to attend the morning or evening roll-call they were forcibly ejected from their huts at the point of bayonets wielded by native guards. The extremely poor physical condition of the men in the camp at Conakry was attributable to two main causes, in my opinion. First the location of the camp on a swamp with its myriads of malarial mosquitoes - we had no mosquito nets - and secondly to the low state of health we had all reached as the result of malnutrition. Repeated moves were made by the Hospital Staff towards getting our situation improved but objections were always raised by the civil authorities. One suggestion made by the Medical Service was that our food should be supplied by the Military Authorities instead of from an hotel. The view was expressed that even if our food was plain under the military it would at least be wholesome and adequate. Under no consideration would the police authorities grant this change-over. After about six weeks, however, the camp was moved to the Grammar School where conditions regarding housing were considerably better. Before we left the camp at "7 kilometres" the rainy season had become fully established and rain fell incessantly for days on end. Wallowing in mud and sleeping in huts where the rain dripped on one all night did not add to the comfort of the camp. Each morning we were escorted to a line of about 10 taps where we were to bathe and do our washing. The guards were always in a hurry to return us behind the barbed wire of the camp and as three men had to use each tap there was barely time allowed to get a wash-down. The line of taps was not screened off in any way and was also used by the families of the black troops living around the camp. Privacy was simply non-existent. The latrines were merely open trenches and were in full view of the native huts in which these families lived. Watching the comings and goings of the internees to the latrine trenches seemed to provide the main source of distraction for the female members of these families.

When the camp was moved to the Grammar School the internees found that they were to occupy a single storey building divided into three rooms, and that adequate exercising space was available around the building. This was an improvement upon "7 kilometres" where the only exercising space was a path about 5 feet wide and 30 yards long, for fifty-two men. At the Grammar School iron bedsteads were provided with a piece of matting to cover the wire. These beds were simply alive with bugs and many of the men at first had slept on the ground instead of on the beds. After many complaints to the police the beds were heated with blowlamps to kill the vermin but the one treatment that they received was insufficient to rid us of these pests. They remained with us for the duration of our stay in Tomba School, and it was no unusual thing for one of us to kill 20 or 30 each morning upon a single bed. Here again the sanitation was of a most rudimentary nature and the unscreened trenches were in full view of the road which ran along the sea front and encircled our camp grounds. Here water could be obtained at any time for washing, etc., from a well in the grounds but there was no privacy from the roadway if one wished to have a sponge-down.

Whilst in the School we were visited by a high police official from Dakar and we made representations to him regarding our food, and also the fact that we had not been allowed to write home or to the American Consul who was in charge of the British interests at Dakar. From then onwards the food was considerably improved and we were permitted to communicate with the Consul. We were shortly to be allowed to write home. This was early in September 1941.

About the 22nd September 1941 there was great activity to be seen around the camp by a gang of police prisoners who were cleaning the place up generally, putting screens around the bath at the well and around the latrine trenches, and fitting mosquito nets over each bed. These were the first mosquito nets we had seen since our arrival three months earlier. On the evening of September 25th each man was given the sum of 50 francs for pocket money, and a topee, and we were instructed to be ready to move to another camp at five o'clock the next morning. The following day we were put on the train for an unknown destination but we knew that we were definitely going as far as Bamako, French Sudan. We therefore jumped to the conclusion that we were going to the camp at Koulikoro. It was while we were on this train that our escort gave us the information that the American Consul was due to visit our camp at Conakry that very afternoon. Thus we were spirited away in darkness before this visitor had the opportunity to see us, when our emaciated condition would have frustrated all their attempts to cloak the true state of affairs. One point, however, the French authorities had overlooked, and that was the eight men who remained in hospital at Conakry as unfit to travel. When the Consul heard about these men he visited them and they were able to give him a true account of our conditions prior to the improvements carried out in anticipation of his visit.

During the whole of our time in Conakry the authorities practised a form of mental cruelty by telling us that we would be repatriated to Freetown in the near future. This was based mainly on the fact that a party of men had been repatriated about the end of July and another party about the end of August or early September, leaving only the CRITON crew in Conakry. We would be told in a very secretive manner that we "would be having our Sunday's meal in Freetown" or that there would be "Good news for you this week", etc., etc. Hitches would then be produced such as "Owing to the rain flooding the roads you will have to wait a few days more", or, "The lorry which was to have taken you has broken down", etc., etc. This constant buoying up of our hopes and repeated disappointments had a very demoralising effect upon the camp, as you may well imagine.

During the three months that the CRITON crew were in Conakry I was in hospital for four or five weeks, and I must speak very highly of the medical service. The Hospital staff did all in their power for us and as one of the major causes of our illnesses was malnutrition, they did their best to feed us up while in hospital. Their only regret was that they could not improve our food at the camp and thus remove the primary cause of our illness. The hospital went so far as to suggest that when some of the other crews were repatriated and our number was less, thus giving more room in the hospital beds, they would take in four or five of us at a time and feed us up for a few days, and then send us out while another batch went in. Hospital authorities then told the Governor that they could no longer cope with the work which we placed upon them and that no hope of improvement could be held out for us until we were sent to a better and cooler climate. This, the Medical Service thought, would help to expedite our release but instead we were sent to Timbuctoo.

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