SUBVERSION CHARGE

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 252, 26 October 1942, Page 4

SUBVERSION CHARGE

SOLDIER FOUND GUILTY. Harold William Klein, a soldier employed in the orderly room at headquarters in a military camp, was found guilty by a jury of 12 in the Supreme Court at Wellington of a breach of the Public Safety Emergency Regulations, 1940, in having in his possession a document with a view to making or facilitating the publication of a subversive statement. He was also charged on two further counts of having in his possession pencilled notes with a view to making or facilitating the publication of a subversive statement. The case was heard by Mr Justice Blair. The evidence showed that, on leaving on week-end leave, the accused took a wrong overcoat, and the documents were found "in the pockets of the overcoat he had left in the office. In addressing the jury, counsel for the Crown said that, though the accused had been on the headquarters staff at the camp for about a year, no trace had been shown of any attempt by him to engage in subversive activities. It was a fair inference to draw that the matter which had been found in his possession was not intended to be used in any unlawful manner. After his Honour had summed-up, the jury retired at 12.30 a.m. and returned at 2.20 p.m., with a verdict of guilty on the first count, and not guilty on the second and third counts, with a strong recommendation to mercy. His Honour, in remanding the accused for sentence, said that this was not the first time he had been guilty of similar offences. He had been sentenced to one year's hard labour on one occasion, and on another had been ordered to come up for sentence within two years if called upon. y