SECRETS DIVULGED.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 126, 27 April 1940, Page 9

SECRETS DIVULGED.

CHARGE AGAINST OFFICER. Received April 27, 11 a.m. LONDON, April 20. The story of a secret .letter at General Headquarters of the 13.E.F. on December 14 from the French was told at Exeter when a Royal Naval Reserve officer, Montague Patrick Kingston Fyrth, aged 28, was charged with having in his possession information to which he had access owing to his position and communicating it to his brother, Hubert Fyrth, aged 22, a University student* who was charged with having secret information in his possession and communicating it to the proprietors of the newspaper Daily Worker. Mr Martin Crump, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said a copy of the secret letter was received about December 29 at the unit where Patrick Fyrth was stationed. It was kept iu a' room with other secret letters over which a 24-hour guard was maintained. It was part of Patrick Fyrth's duty to act as officer of the watch guarding the documents He allegedly made a copy of the letter and sent it to his brother, who was then staying at Exeter. Patrick Fyrth allegedly took advantage of an officer's privilege to send letters uncensored if his signature was on the envelope. Mr Crump said the police, searching the premises at Exeter where Hubert Fyrth was living, found the letter from Patrick dated December 30 containing a verbatim copy of a secret order and stating that, as a reputable member of a political party, he considered it his duty to see that the information was given the fullest publicity in England. Mr Dudley Collard, for the tlercnce, said defendants had a complete answer to the charge and if they were responsible for any transmission of information they did so in order to expose a breach by the authorities of an undertaking' by a Minister of the Crown.

The Court was then cleared and sat in secret.