PUBLISHING MILITARY INFORMATION

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2394, 25 February 1915, Page 5

PUBLISHING MILITARY INFORMATION

. CHARGE AGAINST A NEWS- , : - •PAPER. Melbourne) February 24 . The -Commonwealth is appealing, against the Magistrate's derision, in ther, case Commonwealth against the '"Daily; News" (Perth),' an action arising out of the publication of military information likely, it was alleged, to„;bo ofi* use .to the enemy. i> At the original hearing of tho, prosecution sought to prove thati a published interview, referring to th& defences of the Suez Canal, and .the presence of warships at Port Said, iras* calculated to- be of use to countries with which' Britain was at war. lie de-- t fence raised was that the idea of tha" : enemy making use of information several weeks old was preposterous nan-., sense. Further, the information, put* lished >as absolutely useless to any* one, and the charges laid ridiculous.* In dismissing - the case, with costs against the proseoutidn', the Police! Magistrate (Mr. Davies) said that Mr s Moss's diary, which formed the of tho interview, was compiled of_ in-* .formation consisting of made by himself, while passing ,as aji passenger on one of the through boats.. They also had evidence that Mr. Mosfij was only, in the 6amo position as thou--sanda-of-other passengers, who passed! through the canal each week, and who,;, as equally keen, could have-had, tho..op?j, portunity of seeing what Mr. Moss hadb observed. There was a further suggest tion made by one of that!' the information might »be useful ifi transmitted to the Old Country. Thafa statement could be dismissed without a, i second thought. I woulfi take eighty weeks to get there, and it would be| very foolish for an enemy to wait forjo information from such a source. when: facilities were at hand, they might sonably assume, for sending experts td the spot® to see what was going on.