BRITISH LIBERTY

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 73, 27 March 1934, Page 9

BRITISH LIBERTY

PRACTICE OF JUSTICE

NO NEED FOR PRIVATE

FORCES

(From "The Post's" Representative.) : ; LONDON, February 23. . Over 4000 people gave Sir John Simon, the Foreign Secretary, a warm welcome when he spoke at a National] Government demonstration at Glasgow. "When we reflect on some recent events abroad," he said, "I do not think that it is untimely or out of place to declare that' we do not want any private organisations for keeping order in: this country. There is nothing advanced or up-to-date in drilling a set of; uniformed recruits to uphold by their physical efforts a particular doe: trine.or"to.defend a special cause. Tho use, of private forces was a feature of Englandin the Wars of the Boses, and it was the tradition of the Highland chieftain before you Scotsmen settled down to live , peaceably -•• with ' one another. But nowadays, if there is a threa.l of troublo or disturbance, sensible, citizens send for the'police and rely upon them to do their duty. They will :< preserve and restore order- much better than any amateurs, arid they will 'do it in the general public interest. ,

"And there is this special objection to this sort of thing—the existence of' one private and. unauthorised force inevitably tends to call into existence another. If "people" start expressing their political ideas not only by the colour of their shirts, but by preparations to. demonstrate their physical force, there,'will be more colours than one; we may end by finding ourselves black: and blue in the seufflcj and we shall be in danger of losing the prac-i tieo as well as .the.- doctrine of that common citizenship in which oho opinion is as free as another and undivided public authority is respected bceausc it deals out equal treatment according to law. That would mean slipping back into a different conception of political organisation which is not the least an improvement on British practice, and which inevitably leads to rival attempts atjbullyiug people wo do not happen to like.- •■" ...;'. V .■■- IMPARTIAL JUSTICE. "There was ah instructive case tried in the Law Courts in London the other day when an avowed Communist and a man who had been convicted of a breach of tho law claimed damages against ,tho head of the London police on the ground .that,.a-, bundle of. papers which the police,.had lawfully seized when they executed a warrant ou his premises had been detained longer than was justified. His case was tried in the ordinary way before a Judge of the High Court, and he was awarded, for this not very important mistake, £30 damages. In what other country in ihe world could that have happened? Here was a man. who- had been sentenced, who was opposed to the whole system of the Government of his country, but who none the less had the perfect right to resort to the ordinary Courts of the land against a high official Whose subordinate : had made what, in-"-any view, was only a'mistake without'malieious intent; and yet, without question, the law under which we live, and which is administered impartially for everybody, .awards him compensation in exactly the same way as though heiwas a favoxired member of society. That is the essence of British liberty, as it is the practice of British justice;, and the working people of this country are far top sensible to be misled by those who imagine or pretend that they would gain anything by changing their position with their fellows in other lands."