NATAL POLICE (COLONIAL): THE LONG ARM OF THE LAW
The Nongqai 1909 page 251
1909 – Long Arm of the Law
Police work is interesting and varied. Crime and criminals keep us in business. Criminals sometimes afford policemen the opportunity to travel and see the world at state expense. A policeman’s lot is sometimes a happy lot! – With apology to Gilbert & Sullivan. This is an interesting account of early escort duties that were performed by members of the Natal Police. Today the police use aircraft to escort prisoners that are extradited.
THE LAW’S LONG ARM
The Nongqai 1909 page 251
The announcement that Tpr. Norrey, N.P. of the New Hanover Police, “E” District, had left for the Antipodes to bring back the now famous “Jones, of Newcastle,” recalls to mind many another “little health trip” which members of the Natal Police have been called upon to undertake at a moment’s notice, and brings home to one more forcibly, the oft-used expression, “The Long Arm of the Law.”
Photo of Sub-Insp Caminada
The “Square” – Colouring by Jennifer Bosch
Sub-Insp. Caminada, before his promotion to commissioned rank, was one day casually strolling down the “Square” at Headquarters, thinking of nothing more exciting than whether he would strike Friday night’s guard, and so miss the “Socker” semi-final on the following afternoon, when he was suddenly recalled to the office, and received orders to then and there proceed with all despatch to Trieste with two European defaulters, who were badly wanted by the Austrian Government. The following day Sergt. Caminada and the two defaulters were leaving far on their port beam, the fast-fading coastline of Zululand, and a few weeks later the Austrian officials hoarded the boat at Trieste and took off their prisoners. The first intimation which Sergt. Dick Seed had of a Native Rising in Natal in 1906, was from an Eastern Cable Co.’s official at Mombasa, while the news of the murder of Sub-Insp. Hunt and Tpr. Armstrong was flashing over the cables to London.
Sergt. Seed had left Natal a few weeks previously, to escort an Indian embezzler from Uganda, and his Colony had been then at peace with the World.
Sergt. Grimaldi, at present in charge of the C.I.D., Durban, who was sent to Australia to extradite another “Jones, of Newcastle,” found that the application for extradition was so strenuously contested, that he was obliged to remain in Australia some eight or nine months before his man was finally handed over to him.
There are very few corners of the globe where the Natal Policeman has not yet made his appearance; in Egypt, in India, in South America, each country has received due consideration from us, but while the trips to the Interior and up and down the coast to Delagoa Bay and Cape town are frequent, still the more distant journeys are by no means too uncommon.
It was in 1902 that the late Sergt. Woon broke all records in his 20,000-mile track from Durban to New York, via Liverpool, and through the States, where he was sent to arrest a man named Dawson, anxiously wanted by the Natal Authorities. Woon accomplished his task without a hitch, but, alas! Poor fellow, he is no more. The best and truest of comrades, and a veritable fire-eater, having marvellously passed through the ordeal of a long and bitter war, in which he received a bullet clean through his neck, he succumbed, shortly after his return from New York to enteric fever, at Grey’s Hospital, Pietermaritzburg.
