HARD LABOUR.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 162, 8 June 1940, Page 2

HARD LABOUR.

BREACHES OF REGULATIONS, - SUBVERSIVE STATEMENTS’. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, June 7. Reserved judgment was given by Mr E. H. Levien, S.M., in the Police Court in the case in which four men were charged on Tuesday with publishing subversive statements, alleged by the Crown to be breaches of the Public Safety Emergency Regulations Act, 1940. Defendants were Thomas Stanley, secretary of the Auckland General Labourers’ Union, who was charged that on March 26 lie published a subversive leaflet “The Real Criminals” and also that ho requested publication of a subversive statement; John Reginald Angelo, Ron Hurd, and John Langdon. who were each charged that on April 5 they published a subversive statement in a speech at a meeting in Cobden Street.

There could be nothing more inconsistent with and antagonistic to the regulations than the .speeches and the leaflet which formed the basis of the charge, said the Magistrate. The fvhole tenor of the Act was that every effort should bo pledged to victory in war n.nd people, whatever opinions they held, should not, allow them to impinge on: the legislation.

“The Administration here, as in. 'Britain,” the Magistrate “'Continued, “has become a machine'flbv<jted to-the task of meeting a deadly ■ national peril. Those of us who cannot see their way to assist- its working can at least refrain from applying sabotage to the machinery. I am dealing with the attitude taken by the Communist Party, of which defendants are admittedly members, and the probable effect of the circular and the speeches which eotitain certain teachings, one of which is to organise workers of this and all other wan-in" countries to ‘put a stop to This bloody and senseless war.’ Expression of such opinions may become" dangerous when they offend against war regulations and are likely to interfere with the expressed intention of Parliament.” Each defendant, he concluded, would be convicted. PROSECUTOR’S COMMENT.

Defendants Angelo and Langdon, said the prosecutor, were not present in Court, though notices had been sent to their employers. Besides being secretary of the Auckland General Labourers’ Union, defendant Stanley was chairman of the national executive of the Communist Party in New Zealand. This'party, he said, was very active in the dissemination of pamphlets such as “The Real Criminals,” practically all of which had recently been subversive in character. It must be assumed that these were issued with the knowledge of defendant, who was one of the prominent speakers of a party which had for its aim the stopping of war and the subversion of national effort. In cases such as those' it was imperative for national safety that such offences should be stopped and their recurrence made impossible. Defendant Hurd was a recent arrival in the country. A report had been received from Australia that lie had been an active member of the Communist Party there till 1937, after which lie had been, concerned in the war in Spain. Defendants Angelo and Langdon. he added, were employed at the Otahuhu railway workshops. It was reported that, they were associated with a small active group in the workshops, the presence of which in the centre of a large body of men constituted them as a public menace. The penalty for this offence, said the Magistrate, .was s®t out to punish these, people and also to deter others from interfering with the national effort. The matter was now one of some notoriety and whatever punishment was meted out would be anticipated bv defendants. On the charge of publishing a subversive leaflet, Stanley was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment- - with hard labour and convicted and discharged on tlie second charge. Defendants Angelo, Hurd and Langdon were each sentenced to six months’ imprisonment with hard labour. -- ■ ■