MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

Hokitika Guardian, 20 December 1922, Page 1

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CARLE ASSOCIATION REPRIEVE URGED. LONDON, Dee. 18 The Rev Hugh Chapman, Chaplain iol Ihe Chapel Royal. Savoy, has delivered a sensational sermon in favour of a reprieve for the man Bywaters (who with Mrs Thompson was convicted of murder). i Rev Chapman told a story of when lie was a young minister. He said a woman of his congregation, who was a well-known society beauty, had eon- ; Fessed to him that she had poisoned i her husband, who had died. | lie (Rev Mr Chapman) was greatly : Doubled, lie .then consulted Cardinal : Manning, who did not suggest that he : ('Chapman) should reveal the crime. . Later on, the woman’s lover came to him, and asked him if he knew of the affair, lie (Chapman) told tho man, ! "Yes, and she says that if you per- , severe in your love suit, you will he the next to he poisoned!” The lover had replied: "f should think it a great honour!” This man . vent abroad, but lie could not rid himself the obsession for fourteen years, i Rev Mr Chapman urged that this ease was one analogous to that of Bywaters’. who should he examined by a psychologist, who would say whether he was insane. : The newspapers are asking whether the Rev .Mr Chapman is not “ail accessory after the fact” of the* inurdei in question. The attention of the legal authorities is being drawn to the matter, as the seal of the confessional is not recognised by English lav. POLISH DICTATORSHIP. WARSAW, Dec. 18. Warsaw has been declared to be in a state of siege. The Government lias created a militnr dictatorship, under Field Marshal Pilsudski, who is a strong reactionary. .It is announced that the President’s assassin will he summarily eourt-mnr-tinllcd and shot. APPEAL DISMISSED. LONDON, Dee. 18 The appeal lias been dismissed of Symonds, who was sentenced to death for the murder of the 15-year-old girl named Martha Wall. Symonds, aged 22, a linker, was sentenced to death on a charge of murder of Martha Wall, ' daughter of his employer, while both were carrying out a pact to commit suicide. The mutilated body of the girl was found on the railway near Waltnn. Symonds was nearby, with his two feet so crushed by a train, that both legs had to he amputated at the knees. Symonds was carried into Court on a stretcher. He stated in evidence that lie changed his mind about committing suicide, and tried to prevent the girl throwing herself ill front, of the train. That was all lie could remember. After he was found guilty, the Judge pronounced sentence. AVhilo being carried out, Symonds cried to the crowded court, “f liope some of you people will lake this kind of thing up.”