Royal Commission report day 29 page 5
The Royal Commission evidence for 14/6/1881
(see also introduction to day 29)
[[../../people/peN_P/oconnorPinsp.html|Insp Stanhope O'Connor]] 'giving evidence'
11512 Was he in the employment of the Victorian Government when you enlisted him?— I cannot say whether he was or not positively.
11513 You cannot say whether Captain Standish is right or wrong about that?— No; but no doubt if he says so it is true. I must point out that I am under great disadvantage here, a long way from Queensland, and my Commissioner of Police is at home in England on leave, and the Acting Commissioner is suspended, for I do not know what, and most of my letters were semi-official and private nature to my Commissioner.
11514 What specially now do you want to prove to the Commission in this respect—that you suffered personal loss?— No, I do not want to claim anything.
11515 What is the nature of your complaint, and what redress do you seek through the Commission?— No redress at all. I only want it to be plainly seen by the public and everybody else that Captain Standish, from the time he refused me to go out to the hut business, treated me, officially, most discourteously, up to the time of the Glenrowan business.
11516 To prove that you, as an official of the Queensland Government, were not recognized with that civility which your position deserved?— Yes, officially; and at the time I applied for this Commission was in the Queensland police, a very different position from what I am now. If I had resigned at that time I would not have called for an enquiry at all, but I considered it damaged me in my own Government's eyes.
11517 Was there any complaint made of your conduct as an officer of the Queensland Government officially, by a superior officer of the Victorian force?— No officer, to my knowledge, ever commented disparagingly upon me but Captain Standish, and I only knew that from my own Commissioner of Police. He said to me these words, “ O'Connor, I could not make out what was the matter—Standish was writing to us wanting to take the men under his own command, and dispense with you—that was what we inferred from it, and we did not know what you had done.”
11518 As a matter of fact, did the Government of Queensland look upon you as in any way degraded by the representations made, or was your official position damaged in the slightest degree by the representations made?— When I arrived in Brisbane, after the Glenrowan affair, I was met by a constable who handed me a letter, which was a formal communication, calling upon me to explain my conduct at Glenrowan; that I had never been mentioned in the press, and that the officers had never mentioned my name, and therefore calling upon me to explain exactly what had happened. I considered this letter was damaging, and I wrote an account of Glenrowan there and then, and I sent in my resignation at the same time. Next morning, I called upon the Commissioner, and he said, “O'Connor, I am very sorry you have taken that step, you are riding the high horse, we never meant it like that. The Chief Secretary wished to find out from you the real facts of the case, in your opinion, of Glenrowan, and he caused me to write that letter. I request you will withdraw your resignation.” After a little conversation I withdrew it, and wrote another report about Glenrowan, just dealing with my own self, and I think it was the next day the Governor sent for me, and the Chief Secretary and the Governor both had a long talk with me about the whole thing. Mr. Seymour told me about Captain Standish's writing, and trying to get those men from under me, and when I told him about the boy being taken in the way he was, he was quite shocked; he said he never thought for a moment, he said, any man an officer of police, would ever have thought of talking him from under my charge until he had finished with my service.
11519 Was it said in the presence of the Governor?— I do not think so.
11520 Assuming that impression may have existed at that particular time, the subsequent reports, congratulatory reports, which were forwarded by this Government, by the Chief Secretary and Governor, removed any sort of feeling which may have existed prior to that time?— I quite agree it would, but I had left just as the latter came to Queensland.
11521 As a matter of fact the complaint, if there was any necessity existed for it at all, is, by your own admission, at once removed by those documents, received officially from the Victorian Government subsequently?— I do not blame anybody but Captain Standish, the Government never treated me wrongly.
11522 You have alluded to a report you gave to the Queensland Government about the Glenrowan affair will you produce that official report?— I have not got it, but it is nearly the same statement that I gave here—there is nothing further in it that happened there. I will send for it.
11523 If we have the correspondence you referred to, shall we not be in a better position to judge as to the treatment you received at the hands of Captain Standish?— Yes.
11524 The Queensland Government must have those letters in their possession, written by Captain Standish to them?— Yes. May I point out you may not see what I mean in reference to taking these men over. As my Government stated at the moment, they never understood that Captain Standish intended to have taken these men from under my charge while we were actually doing duty in the colony. That is what I found fault with.
11525 You mean those men could have been left behind when you left with the troopers?— Yes, they could have been left in the Victorian service.....
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