THE EDALJI CASE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3766, 21 May 1907, Page 4

THE EDALJI CASE.

Pardon to Gjs Granted. London, May 18. The Select Committee appointed by the House ot Commons to investigate the case of Edalji, convicted of calile-maiming at Great Wyrley, has presented its report. The committee finds that Edalji’s conviction was unsatisfactory ; that, apart from letters which he wrote in 1903, and by which he partly brought trouble upon himself, there was not sufficient evidence to establish his guilt. The committee is ot opinion that Kdalji is not entitled to a free pardon, but thinks the case might properly be considered an exceptional matter. Mr Gladstone (Home Secretary) feels that the case is an exceptional one, and that he should give weight to the committee’s opinion that the permanent disqualifications following upon Edalji’s conviction be removed. Mr Gladstone advises King Edward is an act of clemency to grant Edalji a free perdon, but says it is not a case for compensation. The case of Mr George E. T. Edalji has been before the public for some time. He is a young Staffordshire lawyer, sou of the Rev. Shapurji Edalji, vicar of Great Wyrley. On October 23rd, 1903, Mr Edalji was sentenced to seven years imprisonment, having being found guilty of sensational cattle maiming crimes in the Great Wyrley district. Considerable doubt was raised subsequently as to the prisoner’s guilt, one significant feature of the affair being that cattle maiming continued after his imprisonment. In 1905 it was promised by the then Home Secretary that if Edalji’s conduct in prison continued to be satisfactory, he would be released in a year. In accordance with this promise, the prisoner was liberated last October, and it was then announced that he would strive to prove that he had been wrongly convicted. In January last Sir A. Conan Doyle, in an article occupying fourteen columns of the London Daily Telegraph, minutely investigated the matter, and appealed to the public .to ask that this unjust prosecution, amounting to a public scandal, should be inquired into. Recently the House of Commons appointed a Select Coramitte to investigate the conviction of Mr Edalji and to report upon it.