Military Strikes & Mutinies

For those with a passing interest in matters maritime, Fred Wilson’s latest book has hit the stalls with a faint thud.  The book can be ordered by clicking HERE or contacting him direct, particularly if you want a copy inscribed free, gratis and for nothing.  Cost $39.95

On 1 April 1947, there was a mutiny in the Royal New Zealand Navy. It followed other mutinies, called strikes by some, that had occurred in the New Zealand Army and the Royal New Zealand Air Force. But this one was different.

A year earlier, the Labour Prime Minister, Peter Fraser, had promised the sailors a pay rise that would be backdated. Fraser broke that promise, and the sailors broke ranks in retaliation.

Two hundred sailors were discharged, had pay they had earned during World War II forfeited, and were persecuted by a vindictive government that prevented them obtaining jobs. Others were pursued and punished.

The earlier Army and Air Force mutinies had, in the end, resulted in no punishment or persecution, even though the scale and extent of those mutinies was greater and the disobedience more pervasive.

This book goes into all the background of those mutinies and exposes what really happened and why. It lays the blame for the unfortunate outcome in the Navy on a spiteful Labour Government and inept senior officers from the Royal Navy who failed to support the New Zealand sailors.