An Uneasy Week
One very significant event occurred in Peel on Monday 22 September. It went unnoticed while both camp and community slept. At two o’clock in the morning two Manx policemen went to the camp cells and arrested the three men who had escaped. Two were Irish, members of the IRA, which had been active in London dining the weeks before the outbreak of war. The third was a member of the British Fascist party.
They were taken to the Isle of Man Prison in Victoria Road, Douglas, and appeared in court before the High Bailiff in the afternoon charged with stealing the motor fishing-boat Sunbeam. It was at this appearance that one of the men alleged that they had been refused food and blankets on being brought back to camp that Saturday. They were remanded to the Douglas prison. They were now in the custody of the law. Peveril had finished with them.
On the Thursday two things happened in the developing action at Peel. In London the Home Office issued a statement, broadcast that night by the BBC, saying the inquiry was nearing its completion and that, as soon as its findings were received, appropriate action would be taken. Administrative decisions were being considered that would prevent further disturbances. That affray on Saturday was always a ‘disturbance’ to the authorities, never a riot. ‘It is already clear that some accounts of the disturbances have been exaggerated,’ said the statement. ‘There was much shouting and disorderly conduct but no assault was directed against any individual. Only two persons were slightly hurt.…’ The Home Secretary was taking steps to make it clear to detainees that such misbehaviour would not be tolerated.
The Manx listened to the announcement but they were not happy. They had a dangerous mechanism ticking away in their midst, and they did not like it. However, the people of Peel were soon told in the Press that fire hose had been installed in Peveril so that the guards could cool off any future rioters. This was the type of news they wanted to read, but they felt the installation had been made one riot too late. On that same Thursday too, they learned that the guard at the camp had been changed; replacements had been brought in.
Unfortunately the first of these reassuring statements was untrue. It would be interesting to know how it originated, for it appeared with every appearance of authority in one of the island’s most respected newspapers. But the installation of fire hose in the Peveril camp was imaginary. There was no way in which the guard could use fire hydrants to quell the ardour of a rioter. The water-supply situation at the camp was in fact a source of some concern to officialdom. The Peel Water Company supplied the town from a small reservoir behind Patrick, about three miles away. The pressure was regulated at the reservoir and was only just adequate for the town’s normal use. There were frequent complaints that water was merely trickling from taps on the first floor of houses at the highest end of the town, and later in the war a fire at one of the houses on the top road was put out only after a special journey to Patrick to boost the pressure and thus get an adequate supply. Experienced water engineers who worked in the Peel area have assured the writer that no extra water points or hoses were installed in the camp following the riot. However, the statement no doubt reassured the good citizenry of Peel.
On the Saturday the Isle of Man Weekly Times spoke for the island. It was strongly critical of the events of the previous weekend. ‘The camp guard,’ it said, ‘was reinforced, but the officers and men had to face this terrible state of affairs without the power to retaliate. Several soldiers were hit by stones.… Officials in this camp have been criticised. We heard it on all sides on Saturday night when civilians called out “Why don’t the soldiers fire on these rats?” The Home Office regulations, we believe, do not permit force to be used against these Fascists.… We firmly believe that had Captain Arthur Curie, in charge of the guard, been given a free hand the riot would soon have been ended.… The public in Peel hate these Fascists.…”
Later that same Saturday a senior Scotland Yard officer, Chief Inspector S. M. Ogden, a man with wide and specialized experience of Fascist activities, arrived on the island by air, armed with a brief from the Home Office.
Sam Ogden had joined the Metropolitan Police in 1919, having served throughout the First World War, when he had been commissioned and seen service in Palestine, Gallipoli and France. In the London police he rose to be Chief Inspector at West End Central for three years, having previously been at Vine Street. He knew exactly the type of man he could expect to meet at Peel, having been in charge of collecting a number of them at the outbreak of war.
He had a crowded week-end. He went to the Peveril Camp and had interviews with the military authorities, both on the spot and in Douglas. He spent some time with B. A. Sargeaunt, the Manx Government Secretary, and had talks with Major Young, the Chief Constable. He also talked at length with Chief Inspector Cuthbert, his Scotland Yard colleague now running the Rushen Camp, who, like him, had specialized knowledge of aliens and internment generally.
During the week-end of his visit, rumours of more trouble in the camp circulated widely and were even reported on the BBC. They were subsequently and very emphatically denied, and there is no doubt that, while tempers may have been frayed and while the atmosphere was sullen and resentful, there was no second outbreak of violence. Had there been, Inspector Ogden would have seen it for himself.
There was nothing more for him to see. He flew back to London on the Monday and filed his report. This time authority, not always noted for the speed of its operations, acted quickly. Very quickly indeed. But not before Peel was in for another incident.